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INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES WITHIN 
THE PRESENT LIMITS OF THE UNITED STATES 



1 C 

BY 

ALMON WHEELER LAUBER, Ph.M. 



SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 

FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN THE 

Faculty of Political Science 
Columbia University 



NEW YORK 
1913 



E<a2 






Copyright, 1913 

BY 

ALMON WHEELER LAUBER 



m » O 



PREFACE 

It is the purpose of this study to bring to light a hitherto 
neglected phase of early American history : the enslavement 
of the Indians. The extensiveness of negro slavery in com- 
parison with Indian slavery has so emphasized the former 
that, in the study of the institution in general, the existence 
of Indian slavery during the colonial period has almost en- 
tirely been lost sight of. In this discussion it is shown that 
the enslavement of the natives was practiced by the Indians 
themselves, the Spanish, the French and the English; yet in 
the case of no one of the European nations did it exist as a 
system separate and distinct from negro slavery. Though 
the holding of Indians as slaves by three of the European 
nations has been considered, it is the author's intention to 
lay emphasis chiefly upon the institution as practiced by 
the English. 

The fact that hitherto no special attention has been given 
to the subject of Indian slavery has made the gathering of 
material difficult. Many of the important sources treating 
of the subject have never been published and are widely 
scattered. Much of even this material is vague in nature 
and consequently more or less unsatisfactory. The rapid 
increase in the number of negro slaves during the colonial 
period resulted in the general use of such terms as " slaves," 
" negroes and other slaves " and " negroes," without speci- 
fication of Indian slaves as such. This is true particularly 
of the colonial laws, even in the case of those colonies where 
Indian slavery existed to the greatest extent. 

The author desires to express his indebtedness to Mrs. 
259] 7 



8 PREFACE [260 

N. M. Surrey for her generous permission to use manuscript 
material collected in the southern states; to the librarians 
and their assistants of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 
the New York Historical Society, the Pennsylvania Histori- 
cal Society, and the Maryland Historical Society, for their 
many kindnesses; and to Professor Herbert L. Osgood, of 
Columbia University, for his advice and for the use of ex- 
tracts from the records of the Society for the Propagation 
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The author's most sincere 
thanks are due to Professor William R. Shepherd, of 
Columbia University, under whose guidance this work has 
been carried on. His suggestions and criticisms have been 
invaluable, and he has given unsparingly of his time in 
reading both manuscript and proof. 

Almon W. Lauber. 
New York City, March 15, 1913. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



PART I 



THE INSTITUTION AS PRACTICED BY THE INDIANS, 
THE SPANIARDS AND THE FRENCH 

CHAPTER I 
Enslavement by the Indians Themselves 

PACB 

Introductory statement 25 

Indian slavery amoi g the Indians practically universal 25 

More extensively used among some tribes than others 25 

No entire tribes held in subjection 25 

Slavtry on the Great Plains and Atlantic Slope 25 

Different from lhat in west . 25 

Not slavery in the ttue sense in many cases . 25 

" Slavery " confounded with " prisoner " and " adoption " 25 

Slavery to be interpreted in the broadest sense 26 

Processes of en-lavement 26-35 

For crime 26 

Indians staked themselves when gambling 26 

Indians sold children in time of famine 26 

Birter with other tribes 27-28 

Warfare 2 9~35 

Coming of Europeans affected slavery 33—35 

Stirring up tribes against one another 34 

Employment of Indian slaves 35~39 

Domestic servants 35 - 3^ 

Mistresses 36 

Agricultural laborers 36 

Miners 37 

Hunters. . 37 

Fishermen 37 

Objects of barter and trade 38 

261] 9 



10 



TABLE OF CONTENTS [262 



FAGS 

Treatment of slaves 39-4° 

Depended upon individual owners 39 

A distinct class in west 39 

A part of family or tribe in east 39 

Adoption 39 

Treatment generally kind 39 

Instances of cruel treatment 40 

Precautions to prevent escape 40 

Women of, tribe have power to spare or kill . 40 

Punishment by death . , 41 

Distinction between owner and slave not so clear as between the Euro- 
pean and his slave 41 

Privileges and favors 4 1-^2 

Manumission 43~45 

Marriage into the tribe 43 

Birth . . 43 

Death of owner 43 

Adoption 43~44 

Peace with tribe to which slave belonged 44 

Exchange 44 

Messenger in formal declaration of war . 44 

CHAPTER II 
Enslavement by the Spaniards 

Idea of slavery ... 48 

Practiced by Indians 48 

Captives of Spanish wars enslaved 48 

Sanctioned by Church and State 48 

Public opinion 48 

Enslavement of Indians would Christianize them 49 

Processes of enslavement . 49-55 

War 49 

Spanish explorers 49-55 

Employment of slaves 55 

Guides 55 

Interpreters 55 

Camp laborers . 55 

Burden bearers 55 



Cooks . . 
Mistresses 



• • • • • 55 

55 

55-57 

Depended upon individual owners 55 



Treatment 



263] TABLE OF CONTENTS H 

PACK 

Kindness to enslave instead of to kill 56 

Instances of kindness 56—57 

Manumission 57 

Act of individual owners 57 

Law of 1543 to er.d slavery in Spanish America . . 57 

Law not successful .... 58 

Missions and "presidios" 59 _ 6l 

Life of Indians was practical slavery 61 

CHAPTER III 
Enslavement by the French 

Legality 63-65 

Never authorized by law in early colonial period 63 

Home government not interested 63 

Indirect royal action in eighteenth century 63 

Authorized by colonial authorities 63 

Action of Company of the Indies, 1720 64 

Recognition by Governor-General Hocquart, 1736 64 

Action of royal council, 1745 64 

Public opinion • 65 

Not concerned with the subject ... 65 

Knowledge of slavery vague 65 

Countenanced slavery as an institution 65 

No leader like Las Cnsas to create sentiment against slavery 65 

Attitude of the missionaries 65-67 

Processes of enslavement 67 

War 67-73 

Natchez War 67-68 

Minor wars 69 

With the Fox Indians 69 

With the Chickasaw 69 

Urging allies to war and taking captives 69-70 

Requiring conquered tribes to go to war and take captives 7° _ 7 I 

Kidnapping 7 1-73 

Trade 73~79 

Indian slaves an object of trade 74 

Part played by " coureurs de bois " 75-77 

Attempt to check action of " coureurs de bois " 77 

Opposition to it not strong 78 

Attitude of Jesuits 78-79 

Gifts: made to the explorers 79-8' 

Birth : throughout history children of slaves generally regarded as slaves . . 82 



I2 TABLE OF CONTENTS [264 

PAGE 

Employment of slaves ... 82-86 

Among the explorers • • 82 

Guides .... 82 

Interpreters 82 

Among the colonists 83-86 

Interpreters 83 

Domestic servants .... 83 

Mistresses ... 83 

Agricultural laborers 83-84 

Laborers on fortifications 84 

Menial camp laborers 84 

Objects of bribe to win friendship of tribes 84-86 

Recognition as property 86 

Tax law of 1728 86 

Treatment of slaves 86-90 

Slavery was of mild nature 86 

Social distinction between slave and owner was less marked than in case 

of English and Indian slaves 87 

Instance of " coureurs de bois " 87 

Religious training 87-88 

Relation to ceremonies and sacraments of the Church 88-90 

Extent of Indian slavery 90-94 

In Louisiana 90-91 

In Natchitoches 91 

In north Mississippi Valley 92 

In Detroit 9 2 ~93 

Manumission 93-95 

Verbal manumission 94 

Law of 1735 required manumission by notarial deed 94 

Law of 1721 freed children of slave mothers and free fathers 95 

Causes of end of Indian s'avery . 96-102 

Indians not adapted to slavery 96 

Decrease in number of Indians 96 

Removal of tribes from neighborhood of whites 96 

Law of 1693 forbade trade in Indians 96 

Law of 1736 repeated the order . . 97 

General unsatisfactoriness of the institution .... 97-99 

Growth of indenture system 0,9 

t Growth of negro slavery lco-102 



265] TABLE OF CONTENTS 13 

PART II 

THE INSTITUTION AS PRACTICED BY THE ENGLISH 

CHAPTER IV 
The Number of Indian Slaves 

PACE 

Exact number in any colony unknown 105 

Statistics rare or lacking altogether 105 

Comparative numbers in different colonies 105-117 

Largest number in South ... 105-108 

Carolinas possessed most 106 

Carolinas exported many 106 

Fewer Indian slaves than negroes ioS 

Number in Georgia very small 108 

The same true ol Virginia 108 

New England possessed many 109-112 

Massachusetts enslaved captives taken in war 109- 1 10 

The Pequot War 109 

King Philip's War 109 

Slaves in various towns 109 

Rhode Island possessed some no 

Connecticut and New Haven had but few Iio-m 

New Hampshire had very few in 

The middle group of colonies had a smaller number than New England . 112 

New York had more than other colonies . 112 

None taken in war 113 

Some imported from the Carolinas and the Spanish Islands . . . 1 14 

Pennsylvania had few 115 

Some imported 115 

New Jersey had very few 1 16 

Maryland probably possessed the smallest number 117 

CHAPTER V 

Processes of Enslavement: Warfare 

Indian wars generally confined to South 1 18 

Wars in Virginia 119 

War with Opechancanough 119 

Bacon's rebellion ......... 119 

Wars in Carolina .... 1 19-122 

War with the Kussoe 119 



I4 TABLE OF CONTENTS [ 2 66 

FAGB 

Expeditions against Spanish Indians after 1701 . 119-121 

In 1702 119 

In 1704. 120 

In 1708 120 

In 1727 121 

Tuscarora War I2I-I22 

Barnwell's expedition 122 

Moore's expedition 122 

Wars in New England 1 22- 126 

Pequot War 123 

The Mistick Fight • - • 123 

The Swamp Fight 123 

Captives retained in colonies 123-124 

Captives exported .... . . 124 

King Philip's War 124-130 

Captives exported 125 

By Massachusetts 126 

Captives retained in colonies 127 

Wives and children of captives enslaved 127 

Children of Indians who surrendered enslaved for short period . . 128 
Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Connecticut transported no 

captives .128 

Rhode Island retained captives in colony 129 

Captives were involuntary indentured servants rather than slaves 130 

Connecticut enslaved captives 130 

Colonial action regarding enslavement of Indians 130-152 

Virginia 130 

Action of 1668 131 

Action during and after Bacon's rebellion 131-132 

Maryland 1 32-133 

Intention in 1652 132 

North Carolina 13VI34 

Action during Tuscarora War 133 

South Carolina 134-137 

Action during war with the Kussoe 134 

Action during war with the Stono 134 

Action during wars of early eighteenth century 135 

Assembly provided committee to dispose of captives I35 

Act of 1703 gave anyone a right to purchase slaves 135 

Acts of 1707 and 1708 gave commanding officers of expeditions the 

right to purchase slaves 136 

Act of 17 15 provided that public receiver should dispose of captives. 136 
Action during war with the Cherokee 136 



267] TABLE OF CONTENTS l $ 

PAGE 

New England 137-152 

Prior to King Thilip's War 137—138 

Disposal of captives by general court : Massachusetts 137 

Disposal of captives by council of war : Plymouth 137 

Act of United Colonies of New Ei gland 138 

Articles of Confederation, 1643 138 

Action in 1645 138 

During King Thilip's War 138-152 

Captives sold outright to obtain money for treasury l3£-'39 

Captives sold to pay debts to individuals 139-140 

Captives granted directly to captors 141 

Military commanders authorized to sell captives 142 

Altitude toward Praying Indians 143 

Colonial governments realized danger of retaining enslaved captives 

in colonies 144 

Massachusetts act of 1676 144 

Massachusetts act of 1677 I45 

Plymouth act of 1678 146 

Government action in capture and sale of Indians not always above 

suspicion 146 

Tly mouth act of 1646 146 

Seizure and sale of Dartmouth Indians 146-147 

Event at Cocheco 147 

Disposal of Indians after the war 148 

Massachusetts '49 

Connecticut 149-150 

Rhode Island 150-152 

CHAPTER VI 

Processes of Enslavement: Kidnaiting 

Action of Cabot, Frobisher, Weymouih, Harlow, Hunt 154-159 

Evidence of kidnapping in southern colonies meagre 159 

Event of 1685 at Cape Fear, North Carolina . . 159-1C0 

Action of Laughton, 1676 160-161 

Kidnapping in Pennsylvania . . 162 

Kidnapped Indians in New York : Spanish Indians 162-163 

Kidnapped Spanish Indians in other colonies 164 

Legislative action against kidnapping 165-167 

Nature of legislation 165 

Purpose of legislation 165 

Acts of 

Virginia, 1657 166 



j 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS [ 2 68 

PAGE 

Maryland, 1672, 1692, 1705 106 

Massachusetts, 1641 166 

New Jersey, 1675 l ^ 

New Hampshire, 1679 - - 167 



CHAPTER VII 
Processes of Enslavement : Trade 

Furchase of Indians from tribes closely connected with fur trade 

Work of ihe " coureurs de bois " 

Captives obtained by South Carolina traders from the Westo, Savannah 

and other tribes ... 169- 

French warn Indians against purpose ol English 

Action of Er.glish west of Mississippi river 

Action of English and French among Chickasaw and Choctaw ..... 

Two-fuld policy of proprietors of Carolina I 73~ 

Sanctioned enslavement of Indians for their own benefit 

Opposed enslavement of Indians by colonial officials 

Directions to grand council 

Appointment of commission to prevent trade in Indians. ..... 

Directions to governors 

Inquiries from council and individuals 

Declare traders' reasons for traffic in Indians unfound 

Malter of traffic in Indians given to parliament 

Attitude of Governor John Archdale 

Action of Governor James Moore 

South Carolina assembly deals with trade in Indians, 1707 

Appointed board of commissioners 

Duties of board 

Oath of members 

Directions to traders 181- 

Turpose of assembly 

Result of action of assembly 

Attempts by board to check traffic in Indians 

Memorial of governor, 1720 

Failure of authorities to enforce decrees 184- 

Trade in Indians in Virginia 1S5— 

Traffic begun early 

Attitude of assembly 1S5- 

Number of slaves obtained by trade never so extensive as in Carolina . 

Trade in Indians in New England 

No direct traffic in slaves with tribes 

Obtained from other colonies 



68 

OS 

71 

7 1 

72 
72 
75 
74 
74 
75 
75 
75 
76 
77 
78 
78 
79 
80 
So 
80 
So 

S2 
S2 

*3 
83 
84 

85 

*7 

85 

SO 

87 
87 
87 

*7 



2 5 9 ] TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 7 

PAGE 

Colonial legislation forbidding traffic in Indian slaves 188-195 

Massachusetts . 188 

New Haven . . 189 

Connecticut 189-190 

Rhode Island 191-192 

New Hampshire !9 2 -'93 

New York 193 

Pennsylvania I 93~ I 9S 

CHAPTER VIII 
Other Processes of Enslavement 

Abuse of indenture or apprenticeship 196-201 

Indians indentured to whites by their tribe 196 

Indians sold to whites by their families 196 

Indians offered as security for loans 196 

Indians sell themselves to whites for protection 196 

Whites enslave such Indians by refusing to give them up 196-201 

Instance in North Carolina, 1660 197 

Cause of Tuscarora War 197 

Virginia legislation shows custom followed there 197-198 

Massachusetts legislation aiming to prevent such action 198-199 

Rhode Island legislation to prevent abuse of apprenticeship . . . 199-200 

Abuses in New York 200-201 

Decree of Governor Clinton to free Indians wrongly enslaved .... 200 

Custom still in existence at late date, 1755 201 

Punishment for violation of law and Older 201-207 

Enslavement as punishment general throughout colonies 201 

Enslavement decreed as punishment in two ways 201 

By law specifying enslavement as punishment for certain crimes . . . 201 

By a court decreeing enslavement as punishment for crimes committed. 201 

Carolina court decrees illustrating sentences for crimes committed . 201-202 

Virginia legislation illustrating specified punishment for specified crimes , 202 

Massachusetts legislation 203 

Massachusetts court decrees 203 

Plymouth court decrees 203-205 

Rhode Island legislation 205 

Rhode Island court decisions • 205-206 

Connecticut legislation 206 

Connecticut court action 206 

Action of the United Colonies 206-207 

Birth 207-210 

In law children of slave mothers generally considered slaves 207 



jg TABLE OF CONTENTS [270 

PAGE 

Colonial laws imposing status of slavery on children of slave mothers . 207-209 

South Carolina • . 207-208 

Virginia 208 

Maryland act of 1663 an exception 208 

Maryland act of 1692 following general custom in other colonies . . . 209 

New York 209 

Colonies that did not pass laws regarding the matter followed general 

custom 209 

Massachusetts 209 

Connecticut 209 

Cases in colonial courts recognizing status of slavery by birth 210 

CHArTER IX 
Property Relations 

Indians in servitude at first held in sta'us servitude . 211 

Status servitude followed by status slavery 211 

Status servitude and stalus slavery existing together 211 

Indian slavery first recognized in customary law 212 

Incidents of the change 212-213 

Indian slavery recognized in statute law 2 1 3-5 1 5 

Instance of South Carolina 213 

Colonial acts from the standpoint of English law 214 

Had no legal sanction 214 

Based on law of nations 214 

England indifferent to such acts 214-215 

Acts therefore legal because not declared illegal 215 

Incidents of status servitude continued into status slavery 215-241 

Conception of property right 215-241 

Indian slaves bought and sold 216 

Newspaper advertisements of Indian slaves for sale 216 

Indian slaves disposed of by will .... 216 

Indian slaves in inventories . 217 

Tendency of Indian slaves to run away 217-218 

Newspaper advertisements for runaway Indian slaves ...... 218-219 

Fugitive slave laws 220-221 

Persons forbidden to aid runaways 220 

Punishment for rendering such aids 221 

Inducements to free Indians to return runaways 221 

Intercolonial agreements concerning return of runaways 222-224 

Articles of federation of the United Colonies of New England . . . 222 
Treaty of United Colonies of New England and New Netherland . . 223 

Incident of New York and Pennsylvania 224 

Incident of North Carolina and Virginia . . • ......... 225 



27I ] TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 9 

PAGE 

Massachusetts rewards master for Indian slave taken from him .... 225 

Couits settle disputes regarding ownership of Indian slaves 225 

Taxation of Indian slaves 226 

South Carolina acts 226-227 

North Carolina acts 227 

Virginia acts 227-230 

Massachusetts acts . 230-232 

New York acts • • . . . 232 

Acts of the town of Rye, New York • 232-233 

Import duties on Indian slaves 233-240 

Protective duties 234-237 

South Carolina acts . • 234 

Virginia acts 235 

Rhode Island act 235 

New Hampshire act 236 

Pennsylvania act ' 236 

New Jersey acts 236-237 

Duties for revenue 237-240 

New York acts 238-240 

Export duties on Indian slaves 24C-241 

South Carolina act 240-241 

CHAPTER X 

Methods of Employment 

Uses of Indian slaves similar throughout colonies 242-249 

Hunters 242 

Fishermen 242 

Guides 242 

Domestic servants ... 243-244 

Agricultural laborers 244 

Cratsmen 245 

Rented like other chattels 245 

Laborers in camp and field 245-247 

Soldiers 247-249 

CHAPTER XI 

Treatment 

Treatment the same as that accorded negroes 250 

Harsh treatment not general ... 250 

Clothing 251-252 

Newspaper evidence 251-252 



20 



TABLE OF CONTENTS [272 



.-AGS 



Marriage of whites with Indian slaves 252 

Forbidden by the following colonies : 

North Carolina, 17 15 253 

Maryland, 1692 253 

Massachusetts, 1692 253 

Regulation of Indian slaves 253-254 

Each colony settled this matter for itself 253 

Indian slaves included by implication in all colonial acts relating to slaves, 

if not specified 253 

Right to give evidence in court 254-255 

Could not testify in trial of a white person 254 

South Carolina 254 

North Carolina 254 

Virginia 255 

Maryland 255 

New York 255 

Protection of slaves' and owners' rights in court 255-259 

The right to life 255 

New Hampshire act of 1708 255 

Trial of slaves similar to that of freemen 255 

Chance of slave obtaining his rights in court 256 

Virginia, 1692, provided special courts for trial of slaves . . .... 256 

Massachusetts provision of 1647 256-257 

New Jersey act of 17 13 257 

New York act of 17 1 2 . 257 

Tendency of slave owners to conceal crimes committed by slaves . . 258 

Remuneration of master if slave was executed 258-259 

Maryland act of 1717 259 

Restrictions 259-260 

Punishments 260-264 

Death 261 

Branding 261 

Whipping 262-263 

Mutilation . 263-264 

Religious life 264 

Provisions of home government regarding religious instructions of slaves 

in general 265 

Indifference of slave owners 265 

Attitude of missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 

in Foreign Parts 265 

Reports of the missionaries to the Society 266-268 

Attitude of the Society 268 

Effect upon the colonists 268- 275 



273] TABLE OF CONTENTS 21 

PAGK 

Opinions of English authorities regarding idea that baptism of slaves 

confers freedom upon them . . . 275 

Manumission 275-282 

Action of individual owners . 276 

Purchase of freedom by slaves 276-277 

Proof of freedom in court 277 

Government action 277-280 

Virginia .... ..... 278 

North Carolina 278 

Massachusetts 279 

Plymouth 279-280 

Regulations regarding life of manumitted slaves 280-282 

CHAPTER XII 
The Decline of Indian Slavery 

Small number of Indians in English territory 283 

Decrease in number of Indians 283 

Decreased birth rate 285 

Susceptibility to diseases of whites . 285-286 

Intestine wars 286 

Intermingling of Indian and negro slaves 287 

Physical and mental unfitness of Indians for slave labor 287-288 

Indian slave labor not satisfactory 288-289 

Indian slaves given to running away 289 

Indian slaves concerned in conspiracies and uprisings 289-290 

Colonial legislation declaring Indian slaves undesirable 290-292 

Indians as hired servants . 292-294 

Indians as indentured servants . . , 295 

White indentured servants . . . 295-297 

Negro slavery 297-29$ 

Comparative values of Indian and negro slaves 298-302 

Opposition to Indian slavery and contrasted opinion 3°3 - 3 I l 

Legislation .... 31 1— 319 

Virginia 31 2—31 5 

South Carolina 3 I 5~3 , 6 

Rhode Island. 316-319 

New York 316-319 



PART I 

THE INSTITUTION AS PRACTICED BY THE 

INDIANS, THE SPANIARDS AND 

THE FRENCH 



CHAPTER I 
Enslavement by the Indians Themselves 

The discussion of the use of Indians as slaves by the 
aborigines within the present limits of the United States, 
both before and after the coming of the Europeans, may 
be prefaced by the statement that the institution of slavery 
in some form was practically universal. Certain tribes held 
slaves more generally than others, and various tribes were 
more subject to enslavement than others, according to their 
relative strength and weakness. 1 Yet nowhere in the terri- 
tory under discussion did slavery exist on such an extensive 
scale that some tribes held others in a state of subjection 
and demanded servile labor from them. 

Slavery among the tribes of the Great Plains and the 
Atlantic Slope was different in nature from that in the 
northwest. Frequent mention of such slavery is 
found, but it has been shown that the term " slave " 
was often used by the early Spanish and French writers in 
an erroneous sense as synonymous with "prisoner." 2 The 
institution of adoption so largely used by the American 
Indians, and incident to intertribal warfare and the conse- 
quent depletion of the tribal numbers, has also been con- 
fused by the writers with the institution of slavery. 3 

1 In Mexico, a certain community of Indians was named " Esclavos " 
by the Spaniards, because the Aztec rulers had drawn so largely upon 
them for slaves. Gage, A New Survey of the West Indies, third 
edition, ii, p. 414. 

1 Hodge, Handbook of American Indians north of Mexico, Bureau 
of American Ethnology, Bulletin 30, pt. ii, p. 599. 

3 Ibid. 

277] 2 5 



2 6 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [278 

Though slavery, in the strictest sense, was not general in 
the territory above mentioned, yet some form of the institu- 
tion is recorded as having existed among the leading tribes. 
In the discussion which follows, the term " slave " must, 
then, be considered in its broadest sense. A prisoner held 
by his captor as an inferior and forced to labor for him, or 
sold into servitude or freedom for the financial benefit of his 
captor, will be considered a slave when thus treated by the 
Indians, as he will be so considered in a later discussion 
when thus treated by the whites. 

Among the Aztec Indians of Mexico outcasts and crimi- 
nals of the tribe were enslaved, 1 and the usage appears to 
have been followed, to a very slight extent, by Indians in the 
area of the French and English colonies to the northward. 2 

Individual instances of slavery proceeded from other 
causes. The Indians were inveterate gamblers, and when 
nothing else was left, both men and women not infrequently 
staked themselves to serve as slaves in case of loss. Such 
slavery was sometimes for life, and sometimes for such 
short periods of time as a year or two. 3 In case of famine, 
the Indians even sold their children to obtain food. 4 

The slaves possessed by a given Indian tribe were oftener 

1 Fiske, The Discovery of America, i, p. 121 ; Prescott, History of 
the Conquest of Mexico, twenty-second edition, i, pp. 35, 41. See also 
Clavigero, The History of Mexico (translated by Cullen), i, p. 157, ii, 
p. 154; Prescott, op. cit., i, pp. 63, 68, 147, 155, 168, 285; ii, pp. 82, 137. 

2 See Neill, History of Minnesota, p. 85, for the case of an Indian who 
wanted to enslave his daughter's murderer. Brickell, The Natural 
History of North Carolina, etc., p. 355, tells of Indians enslaving one 
another for theft until reparation was made. 

* The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, edited by Reuben Gold 
Thwa'tes, xvi, pp. 199, 201. The same custom was followed by the 
Indians in later periods. See Parker, A Journey Beyond the Rocky 
Mountains (1835), p. 53. 

4 Jesuit Relations, xv, p. 157. 



279] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE INDIANS THEMSELVES 2 J 

obtained through barter with other tribes. This intertribal 
traffic, though probably not common, was evidently far- 
reaching. 1 Owing to the wandering habits of the Indians 
and their custom of bartering goods with other tribes, 
articles of copper became distributed throughout the North 
west, especially in Wisconsin. The Illinois Indians pos- 
sessed slaves who came from the sea coast, probably 
Florida. 2 The Illinois also bartered their slaves with the 
Ottawa for guns, powder, kettles and knives, 3 and with the 
Iroquois to obtain peace. 4 Marquette found (1673) among 
the Arkansas Indians, knives, beads and hatchets which had 
been obtained partly from the Illinois and partly from the 
Indians farther to the east. 5 The Jesuit, Grelon, relates 
that in Chinese Tartary he met a Huron woman whom he 
had known in America. 6 

The transition from the method of obtaining slaves by 
actual warfare and barter to that of mere slave raids was 
an easy one. The desire to gain the reputation of a skill- 
ful hunter, and, still more, of a brave warrior, and thus to 
win the esteem and regard of his tribesmen, was inherent 
among the natives. To be a brave warrior was to be truly 
a man. So eager was the Indian to acquire the name of 
" brave " that he unhesitatingly underwent any hardships 

1 Margry, Decouvertes, etc., i, p. 470; Michigan Pioneer and Histor- 
ical Society Collections, xxiv, p. 182. 

1 Thwaites, Father Marquette, p. 85. The spelling of the Indian 
names in this dissertation is that used by Hodge in Handbook of 
American Indians north of Mexico. 

1 Hennepin, A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America, edited 
by Reuben Gold Thwaites, p. 631. 

4 French, Historical Collections of Louisiana, pt. i, p. 56 ; Margry, op. 
cit., i, p. 527. 

6 Shea, Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, etc., 
pp. lvi, 32; Thwaites, Father Marquette, p. 81. 

• Jesuit Relations, lix, p. 309. 



2 8 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [280 

to obtain slaves or scalps as a proof of his qualifications 
for the title. 1 This means of obtaining slaves was used 
by the stronger tribes like the Illinois and the Iroquois. 2 

The slaves bartered by the Illinois were generally taken 
in the territory beyond the Mississippi. 3 This the Illinois 
were better able to do after the coming of the whites, as 
they were provided with guns, while the Indians to the west- 
ward had no weapons of the sort. One of the chief sources 
from which these slaves was obtained was the Pawnee 
nation. In 1719, Du Tisne wrote to Bienville, the com- 
mandant at New Orleans, that the Pawnee were afraid of 
him when he arrived among them, as their neighbors, the 
Osage, had made them believe that his intention was to 
entrap and enslave them. 4 

The same practice was followed by the other northern 
tribes. La Jeune, in 1632, found slaves among the Algon- 
quin. The Indians of the Great Lakes region had a young 
Esquimaux as a slave in 1646. 5 Tonti found Iroquois slaves 
among the Huron and Ottawa. 6 The Dutch navigator, 

1 Jesuit Relations, Ixvii, p. 171. In the south, the term "slave" was 
used by the Indians, not only in the sense in which it is commonly 
used, but as applied to dogs, cats, tame and domestic animals, and to 
captive birds. " So when an Indian tells you that he has a slave for 
you, it may, in general terms as they use, be a young eagle, a dog, or 
any other thing of that nature, which is obsequiously to depend upon 
the master for its substance." Lawson, The History of North Caro- 
lina, containing the exact description and natural history of that 
country, p. 327. 

1 In 1694, the Illinois informed Tonti that during the preceding seven 
years they had killed and taken prisoners 334 men and boys and ill 
women and girls. Margry, op. cit., iv, p. 5. 

' Hennepin, A New Discovery, etc., ii, p. 631 ; Margry, op. cit., ii, p. 
08; Jesuit Relations, liv, p. 191; lix, p. 127. 

* Chappell, A History of the Missouri River, p. 25. 

8 Jesuit Relations, xxx, p. 133. 

6 French, Historical Collections of Louisiana, pt. i, p. 69. 



2 8 1 ] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE INDIANS THEMSELVES 29 

Hendrickson, in 1616, found the Indians of the Schuylkill 
River country holding Indian slaves. 1 

Of all the northern Indians, the Iroquois were by far the 
most powerful. They were the enemies, in the time of the 
early French explorations and settlements, of the Huron 
and the Illinois, and from these tribes they took many cap- 
tives whom they enslaved. The statement has been made 
that no personal slavery ever existed among the Iroquois — 
that their captives were either killed or adopted as a part of 
the nation. 2 Quite the contrary is true. They held both 
Indians and whites in personal slavery. They brought back 
from the Ohio country bands of captives, sometimes num- 
bering three or four hundred. 3 They preyed upon the 
Shawnee and carried them off into slavery. 4 They cap- 
tured and enslaved the Miami for whose redemption they 
were presented with quantities of beaver skin. These they 
received but failed to free the slaves. 5 They brought home 
slaves from Maryland and the south, 6 and from the land 
of the "Chat" 7 (the Erie). It was the Iroquois (the 
Seneca), called by an early writer " Sonnagars," who en- 
slaved captives taken from the tribes of Carolina and 
Florida. 8 

1 Hazard, Annals of Pennsylavnia, p. 7. 

* Discourse delivered before The New York Historical Association 
at the anniversary meeting, December 6, 181 1, by the Honorable 
DeWitt Clin'on; La Hontan, New Voyages to North America, edited 
by Reuben Gold Thwaites, ii, p. 504. 

1 Margry, op. cit., ii, pp. 141, 272 ; iv, p. 5. 

* Hennepin, op. cit., ii, p. 659. 

6 Margry, op. cit., i, p. 527; ii, p. 141. 
6 Jesuit Relations, lxii, p. 67. 
1 Ibid., lxi, p. 195. 

8 Catesby, The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama 
Islands, etc., ii, p. xiii ; Hodge, op. cit., pt. i, p. 532. 



3 o INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [282 

Similar practices are related of the southern Indians. 
The Virginia tribes possessed " people of a rank inferior to 
the commons, a sort of servants . . . called black boys, at- 
tendant upon the gentry." * When Menendez founded St. 
Augustine in 1565, he discovered in a native village the 
descendants of a band of Cuban Indians who had come to 
the mainland, been taken prisoners by the Florida Indians, 
and reduced to slavery. 2 

In the south the strongest tribes were the Choctaw and 
Chickasaw. These two tribes were not only at war with 
each other from time to time, but each preyed upon the 
weaker tribes of the surrounding country. In 171 7, a 
Cadodaquiou chief informed La Harpe, on his journey to 
the Nassoni northwest from Natchitoches, that the Chicka- 
saw had killed and enslaved their nation until it was then 
very small, and that the remnant had been forced to take 
refuge among the Natchitoch and Nassoni. 3 

The Choctaw enslaved the Choccuma, a small tribe lying 
between them and the Cherokee, 4 and about 1770 captured 
and burned their village. The chief and his warriors were 
slain, and the women and children became the slaves of the 
conquerors. 5 The Pima of the present southern Arizona 
took their slaves chiefly from the ranks of the Apache and 
their allies, and in some degree from the Yuma. These 

1 Beverly, The History of Virginia in Four Parts, second edition, p. 
179; Smith, The General Historie of Virginia, New Eng'and, and the 
Summer Isles, in Arber's edition of Captain John Smith's Works, ii, 
P- 570. 

* Memoir of Hernando de Esca'ante Fontanedo on the Country and 
Ancient Indian Tribes of Florida, in French, Historical Collections of 
Louisiana and Florida, series ii, p. 253. 

1 French, op. cit., pt. iii, p. 68. 

* Bulletin 43 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 296. 

8 Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, v, p. 305. 



283] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE INDIANS THEMSELVES 31 

captives were largely children. When not killed they were 
enslaved. Some of them were kept within the tribe, and 
were even permitted to marry members of the tribe. But 
their origin was never forgotten, and the innate superstition 
of the natives found expression in the declaration of the 
medicine men that disasters and misfortunes came to the 
tribe through the presence of these aliens. 1 

In 1540, Mendoza stated that the Pueblo Indians kept 
their captives for food and for slaves. 2 In the same year, 
Coronado, on his journey to Cibola, found among the In- 
dians he met an Indian slave who was a native of the 
country that Soto traversed. 3 

When Du Tisne, in 17 19. made his journey west of the 
Mississippi River, he found the Osage at peace with the 
Pawnee and at war with the Kansas, Padouca, Aricara and 
other tribes, who in turn preyed on the Pawnee. 4 The 
Pawnee were common prey to the tribes on both sides of 
the Mississippi River. Their nation was not especially 
small in numbers, 5 but they appear to have been lacking in 
certain warlike qualities with which some other nations, as 
the Illinois and Iroquois, were more generously endowed. 
On this account they were so generally enslaved by their 
enemies that the term " Pawnee " became synonymous with 

1 Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 
1904-1905, p. 197. 

1 Bureau of American Ethnology Publications, xiv, pt. i, p. 548. 

3 Ibid , p. 449; Lowery, The Spanish Settlements within the Present 
Limits of the United States. 1513-1561, p. 314. 

* French, op. cit., pt. iii, p. 74. Du Tisne meditated making peace be- 
tween the Pawnee and Padouca, and thought it could be done by giv- 
ing presents to each tribe, and by getting each to return the slaves 
which it held of the o:her nation. Chappell, op. cit., p. 26. 

6 Iberville, in 1702, found them to number 2,000 men. Margry, op. 
cit., iv, pp. 597-599- 



32 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [284 

Indian slave. 1 In 1724, de Bourgmont found the Kansas 
Indians employing Padouca slaves. 2 De Boucherville, also, 
on his journey from the Illinois country to Canada, 1728- 
1729, took with him a little slave for the governor-general 
of Canada, and was offered other slaves as gifts by the 
Indians whom he encountered. 3 

In a letter written at Quebec, October 1, 1740, the Mar- 
quis de Beauharnois speaks of the Huron bringing slaves 
from the Flathead and delivering them up to the Outaouac 
(Ottawa). 4 La Verendrye, in 1741, was told by the Horse 
Indians that the Snake Indians had destroyed seventeen of 
their villages, killed the warriors and women, and carried 
off the girls and children as slaves. 5 

Of the Wisconsin tribes, the Ottawa and Sauk, at least, 
were in the habit of making captives of the Pawnee," Osage, 
Missouri, and even of the distant Mandan, whom they con- 
signed to servitude. The Menominee did not usually en- 
gage in these distant wars, but they, and probably other 
tribes, had Pawnee slaves whom they purchased of the 
Ottawa, Sauk and others who had captured them. For the 
sake of convenience, they were called " Pawnees," though 

1 Thwaites, Early Western Travels, vi, p. 61 ; Jesuit Relations, lxix, 
P. 301. 
8 Margry, op. cit., vi, p. 416. 

■ Narrative of De Boucherville, in Wisconsin Historical Society Col- 
lections, xvii, pp. 42, 55, 89. 

4 Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society Collections, xxxiv, p. 182. 

1 Parkman, A Half Century of Conflict, ii, p. 46. 

6 The term " Pawnee " or " Panis " signifying an Indian slave was 
especially used in Canada. See J. C. Hamilton, Slavery in Canada, 
in Transactions of the Canadian Institute, 1890, pp. 102-108; "The 
Panis" in Canadian Institute Proceedings, 1899, PP- I 9" 2 7; Smith, The 
Slave in Canada, in Nova Scotia Historical Society Reports, x, pp. 3, 72. 



285] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE INDIANS THEMSELVES 33 

some of them were certainly from the Missouri tribes. 
These captives were usually children. 1 

" Beginning with the Tlingit, slavery as an institution," 
using the term in its strictest sense, " existed among all the 
Northwest coast Indians as far as California. It practi- 
cally ceased with southern Oregon, although the Hupa of 
Athapascan stock, and the Nozi (Yanan), both of northern 
California, practiced it to some extent." 2 Slavery in some 
form appears to have existed among both the Klamath and 
the Modoc, and in the Columbia River district as far as 
the Wallawalla River, where it existed among the Cayuse 
and the Nez Perces. 3 " The Northwest region, embracing 
the islands and coast occupied by the Tlingit and Haida, and 
the Chimmesyan, Chinookan, Wakashan, and Salishan 
tribes, formed the stronghold of the institution." i To- 
ward the eastward the institution became modified, as has 
been shown. 

According as an Indian nation proved friendly or un- 
friendly, the whites used it for their own advantage. Orig- 
inally the slaves consisted almost entirely of captives taken 
in war, for there was but little trade among the different 
nations and tribes until articles of commerce were given by 
the whites in return for furs and slaves. How the traffic in 
slaves was affected is seen in the case of the Choctaw and 

1 Grignon, Seventy-two Years' Recollections of Wisconsin, in Wis- 
consin Historical Society Collections, iii, p. 256; Thwaites, Early West- 
ern Travels, i, pp. 304, 309. In the present state of Michigan, traces 
are found of Indians holding others as slaves, though the Ordinance 
of 1787 forbade slavery in the Northwest Territory. Michigan Pioneer 
and Historical Society Collections, xiv, p. 658. 

1 Hodge, op. cit., pt. ii, p. 598. 

s Ibid., pt. ii, p. 598. 

* Ibid., pt. ii, p. 598. 



34 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [286 

the Chickasaw, the former friends of the French, the latter, 
of the English.. The ill feeling of the two nations was 
nourished by the international rivalry of their white allies 
to whom the Indians disposed of many of their captive 
slaves. 1 The Spaniards of Mexico made slave raids and 
induced the Indians to do so. La Salle's expedition, found 
abundant evidence in 1687 of Spanish trade among the 
Cenis Indians, in their possession of pieces of money, silver 
spoons, lace, clothes and a bull from Rome exempting the 
Spaniards in Mexico from fasting during the summer. 2 
Some messengers of the Chouman among the Cenis, and the 
Cenis themselves, told the French of the slave raids and of 
the cruel treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards to the 
southward. 3 

Even the Jesuits were not averse to stirring up tribe 
against tribe. So strong was their interest in the Huron 
that, for the advancement of the Jesuit cause, it was felt 
advisable to break up the Iroquois power. Even La Salle 
advised such a course of action, and urged that the French 
strengthen the southern Indians by supplying them with 
firearms and in other ways, so that they might be enabled 
to defeat the Iroquois, destroy their organization, and carry 
off their women and children as slaves. 4 

On the other hand, since the Huron were the friends of 

1 Margry, op. cit., v, p. 506; French, Historical Collections of Louis- 
iana, pt. iii, pp. 33, 34, 68; Cramoisy, Journal de la Guerre du Micis- 
sippi contre les Chicachas, pp. 65, 67, 68, 89; La Harpe, Historical 
Journal of the Establishment of the French in Louisiana, in French, 
op. cit., pt. iii, p. 27 ; Brickell, op. cit., p. 324. 

2 Douay, Narrative of La Salle's Expedition, in Shea, Discovery and 
Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, p. 204; French, op. cit., pt. iv, 
p. 204. 

* Shea, op. cit., pp. 205, 211, 216. 

4 French, op. cit., pt. i, p. 42. 



287] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE INDIANS THEMSELVES 3- 

the French and had been largely converted by the French 
missionaries, the Jesuits sought to better the lot of the 
Huron slaves held by the Iroquois, 1 and sent an earnest 
appeal to the Christians in France to contribute funds for 
the redemption of the Christian captives. 2 Hennepin's 
Narrative tells of an attempt made by the Jesuits in 1681 
to free some Ottawa Indians who were slaves among the 
Iroquois, by gifts of wampum belts, and by telling the 
Iroquois that these Ottawa were the children of the gov- 
ernor of the French, and that by holding them they were 
making war on the French. 3 

The employment to which the Indian slave was put by 
his Indian owner depended largely upon the section in 
which the tribe resided. Their use as domestic servants 
was probably common. Father Fremin tells of a young 
Iroquois woman who possessed more than twenty personal 
slaves, whose duty it was to get wood, draw water, cook, 
and do all other services which their mistress might direct. 
On the death of the owner who was a Christian, her mother 
desired that the missionary instruct a sick slave in his reli- 
gion, so that after death the slave might attend her former 
mistress in Heaven and perform the same services for her 
as she had done on earth. 4 Among the Illinois, La Hontan 
found that two hours after sunset, the slaves covered the 
fires in the lodge before going to rest/' Bartram mentions 
a southern chief, who had attending him as slaves many 

1 lesuit Relations, xliii, p. 299; xliv, pp. 47, 49; 1, p. 115. 

2 Ibid., xliii, p. 293. 

. 3 Hennepin's Narrative, in Shea, Discovery and Exploration of the 
Mississippi Valley, p. 144. 

4 Jesuit Relations, liv, pp. 93, 95. 

6 La Hontan, op. cit., ii, p. 454. A Memoir of La Salle to Frontenac. 
November 9, 1680, declares that '.he Illinois forced their slaves to work. 
The Historical Magazine, v, p. 197. 



36 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [ 2 88 

Yamasee captives who had been captured by him when 
young. 1 

Le Jeune found the Huron and Ottawa Indian slaves en- 
gaged in minor household duties. 2 In the northwest, en- 
slaved women and children performed the same labor. 3 
One other use to which the young women and girls were 
put, if they did not marry into the tribe, was to serve as 
the mistresses of their owners. 4 

All the tribes east of the Mississippi River and south of 
the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes practiced 
agriculture to some extent. They all raised corn, beans, 
squashes and melons. 5 Consequently the captive slaves 
worked in the fields with the members of the tribe, caring 
for the maize and vegetables. The Iroquois used their 
captives in tilling the fields. 6 Captain John Smith, in speak- 
ing of Powhatan's tribe, states that they made war, " not 
for lands and goods, but for women and children, whom 
they put not to death, but kept as captives, in which cap- 
tivity they were made to do service." 7 A part of this ser- 
vice consisted in caring for the crops. The Indians of 
North Carolina kept their slaves at work in the fields. 8 

1 Bartram, Travels through North and SoutJi Carolina, Georgia, East 
and West Florida, p. 185. 
1 lesuit Relations, xvi, p. 199. 
' Hodge, op. cit., pt. ii, p. 598. 

4 Jesuit Relations, xliii, p. 293. It was the existence of this class of 
slaves among the Iroquois which the Jesuits deplored most of all. 

5 Carr, The Mounds of the Mississippi Valley Historical Considered 
p. 8; Lowery, The Spanish Settlements within the Present Limits of the 
United States, 1513-1561, p. 32. 

6 Carr, op. cit., p. 18. 

7 Purchas His Pilgrimes, edition of 1908, iv, pp. 1699-1700. 

8 Brickell, op. cit., p. 321 ; Lawson, op. cit., p. 188. 



289] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE INDIANS THEMSELVES 37 

Soto found that the Indians among whom he passed had 
many foreign slaves whom they employed in tilling the 
ground. 1 Among the Illinois, La Hontan found the women 
slaves employed in sowing and reaping. 2 

Slaves were also employed in mining, hunting, fishing, 
and whatever menial tasks needed to be done about the 
camp. But few of the tribes worked mines to any extent, 
yet Joutel, 1687, found the Cenis Indians working slaves in 
their mines. 3 Hunting and fishing were more important 
occupations, since they furnished food for the tribe. 
Among the Iroquois, 4 Huron, 5 Ottawa, 6 and Illinois, 7 such 
work was partly done by the slaves who often worked with 
their masters. In the northwest the slave assisted his mas- 
ter in paddling, fishing and hunting. He cut wood, carried 
water, aided in building houses, etc. 8 

The existence of barter or trade among the different 
tribes, and among individuals of the same or different tribes, 
as a means of obtaining slaves has been already noted. 
Hence it follows that slaves, along with wampum, furs, etc., 
served as a medium of exchange in trade. Furthermore, 
they served as gifts or objects of barter whereby captives 
belonging to the possessor's tribe might be obtained, and by 
which an unfriendly tribe or individual might be placated. 
They were given to the whites to win their favor and 

1 Lowery, The Spanish Settlements within the Present Limits of the 
United States, 1513-1561, p. 32. 

* La Hontan, op. cit., ii, p. 432. 

* Margry, op. cit., iii, p. 339. 

* Jesuit Relations, lxi, p. 195; La Hontan, op. cit., i, pp. 94, 106, in, 
113; Hennepin, op. cit., ii, p. 509; Carr, op. cit., p. 18. 

4 Jesuit Relations, xvi, p. 199. 

6 Ibid., xvi, p. 199. 

7 La Hontan, op. cit., ii, p. 432. 

8 Hodge, op. cit., pt. ii, p. 598. 



38 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [290 

friendship. 1 This use of slaves to purchase peace with a 
stronger tribe was noted by Tonti in the case of the Illi- 
nois and Iroquois. The Illinois were too weak to cope with 
the Iroquois on a certain occasion owing to their young 
men being away at war, and so by the gift of beaver skins 
and slaves they were able to arrange a peace. 2 Dubuisson, 
the French commander in the war of 171 2 between the 
French and allied Indians, and the Ottogami and Mas- 
couten, records a similar use made of their slaves by the 
Indian allies of the French as a means of appeasing the 
Potawatami for an old quarrel. 3 From the area about 
Green Bay in the present State of Wisconsin, De Lignery 
wrote in 1724 of bringing the warring tribes to an amicable 
settlement through an interchange of slaves. 4 Other French 
commanders in the same section used the same means to 
regain peace. Not only to each other, but to whites as well, 
were slaves given in order to make reparation for losses in 
war. In 1684, the Indians offered Du Luth slaves to take 
the place of some assassinated Frenchmen. 5 In 1724, the 
Indians at Detroit offered the French commander, by way 
of truce, two slaves for the same purpose. 6 When slaves 
were desired for such use, if the tribe possessed none, a raid 
was often made upon an enemy in order to obtain them. 
At the time of certain disturbances around Detroit, the 
Indians in the peace arrangements promised the French that 

1 Wisconsin Historical Society Collections, xvi, p. 345. For the 
legend of the enslaving and freeing of the Indians of Payupki by the 
Tusayan, see the Bureau of American Ethnology, Report for 1886- 
1887, P- 40. 

* French, op. cit , pt. i, p. 56. 

3 Wisconsin Historical Society Collections, xvi, p. 284. 

4 Ibid., xvi, pp. 306, 429, 444, 447-451. 

5 Ibid., xvi, p. 123. 

6 Ibid., xvi, p. 276. 



291] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE INDIANS THEMSELVES 39 

they would make raids on distant nations to obtain slaves 
whom they would deliver to the French allies to replace 
their dead. 1 

The treatment of slaves depended upon the individual 
owner, whose disposition and mood might vary from kindli- 
ness to extreme cruelty according to circumstances or 
caprice, and, still more largely, upon custom. In the 
northwest slavery had existed for a sufficient length of time 
before the coming of the whites to modify materially the 
habits and institutions of the people. It doubtless pro- 
duced the ideas of rank and caste so generally found among 
the Indians of that section, but so little known elsewhere 
among the American Indians. 2 Nevertheless the slaves 
among the Indians of the northwest were not, as a class, 
considered any more inferior to their owners than the 
slaves of the tribes farther east where adoption was more 
generally practiced. Consequently servitude in that section 
was of a rather mild type. 3 The same appears to have been 
true of servitude in general among the Indians. Slaves 
were probably not generally neglected or abused. 4 Yet 
there are many testimonials of cruel treatment. Travelers 
spoke of the slaves of the southern Indians serving and 
waiting on their masters with signs of the most abject fear, 
as tame, mild and tractable, without will or power to act 
but as directed by their masters. 5 The slave was expected to 
obey his master blindly and without disputing. 6 In this con- 

1 Wisconsin Historical Society Collections, v, p. 79. 
* Hodge, op. cit., pt. ii, p. 598. 

3 Ibid. 

4 This statement implies that the term " slave " does not include 
prisoners of war who were tortured by their captors. 

5 Bartram, op. cit., p. 185. 

8 La Hontan, op. cit., ii, p. 439- 



40 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [292 

nection it must be understood that enslavement of captives 
in war was in itself a kindly act on the part of the captors, 
determined partly by the need of laborers and additional 
members in the tribe, partly by the use which the victors 
could make of these captives in traffic with other tribes and 
with the whites, and partly by mere whim. Otherwise, the 
prisoners were tortured and killed as an expression of 
hatred, or as a means of obtaining revenge for injury. To 
instil fear into them, slaves were often compelled to observe 
the torture of their fellow captives who were condemned to 
death. La Salle relates an instance in which slaves were 
forced to eat one of their own nation, a victim of such tor- 
ture. 1 Among the Cenis such a custom was followed, and 
it is quite possible that this method of producing subjection 
was consistent with the habitual cruelty of most tribes. 

Precautions were taken to prevent the escape of slaves. 
The southern Indians were accustomed to mutilate the feet 
of their slaves either by cutting away a part of the foot, 
or by cutting the nerves and sinews just above the ankle or 
instep. The slave was thus prevented from running 
rapidly, and if he should escape, the tracks of his mutilated 
feet were easily recognizable. 2 

The life or death of Indian slaves depended upon either 
the council or the women. 3 The captives were apportioned 
by the council to different individuals of the tribe, usually 
at the request of the women, who often preferred to adopt 
captives into their families to replace lost husbands and 

1 French, op. cit., pt. i, p. 160. 

* Brickell, The National History of North Carolina, p. 321 ; Irving, 
The Conquest of Florida under Hernando de Soto, i, p. 280; Sh : pp, 
The History of Hernando de Soto and Florida, etc., p. 367; Pickett, 
History of Alabama, p. 64. The statements of Irving, Shipp and 
Pickett are based on the account by Garcilaso de la Vega. 

1 Margry, op. cit., v, p. 95. 



293] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE INDIANS THEMSELVES 41 

sons, rather than to revenge themselves for the loss of rela- 
tives by demanding the torture and death of the slaves. 1 
After such distribution, the life or death of a slave de- 
pended entirely upon the will of the owner. Among a bar- 
barous people, a slave's life naturally had but little value. 
Sick and useless slaves were often put to death, 2 and trivial 
faults might be punished in the same way. The Jesuit 
missionaries said of the Iroquois : " When a barbarian has 
split the head of his slave with a hatchet, he says, ' It is 
a dead dog — there is nothing to be done but to cast it upon 
the dung hill '." 3 

On the other hand, the Jesuits record certain instances 
of kindness shown to slaves by the Iroquois and other 
tribes. 4 One important difference existed between the In- 
dian slavery as practiced by the Indians themselves, and 
that in existence among the whites. Among the Indians 
the question of social equality did not determine the rela- 
tion of the slave to the master. The Indian slaves were 
always considered eligible for adoption into the tribes as 
actual members, in order to replete the numbers reduced by 
war, famine, disease or other cause. 5 Among the Iroquois 
certain chosen slaves married into the tribe and became 
heads of families after the death of their owners. They 
led a tolerably easy life, but were still considered as slaves, 
and had no voice, either active or passive, in the public 

1 Margry, op. cit., v, p. 95 ; Marshall, Historical Writings Relating 
to the Early History of the West, p. 211; La Hontan, op. cit., ii, pp. 
420, 505- 

' Marshall, op. cit., p. 212; Hennepin, op. cit., ii, p. 508; Jesuit Rela- 
tions, xliii, p. 303. 

* Jesuit Relations, xliii, p. C95. 

* Ibid., xliii, p. 299; Shea, Discovery and Exploration of the Miss- 
issippi Valley, p. 34. 

* Hodge, op. cit., pt. ii, p. 599. 



4 2 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [294 

councils. 1 Still others, who had been the richest and most 
important in their own villages, received no reward 
from their masters except food and clothing. 2 A certain 
amount of liberty seems to have been accorded these slaves, 
for the Jesuits were allowed to work among them some- 
times as openly as among the members of the tribe. 8 Bar- 
tram found that among the southern Indians the slaves were 
dressed better than their owners, and were allowed to marry 
among themselves; but they remained slaves for life. 4 

There were several ways by which Indian slaves could 
obtain their freedom. Among the Huron a young brave 
could marry his mother's slave, and his parents had no 
right to hinder him. By becoming his wife the slave be- 
came a free woman. 5 Among the southern Indians the 
children of slave parents were free and were considered in 
every respect equal to their parents' masters. 6 Among the 
western Indians, upon the death of a savage, his slaves inter- 
married with others of their kind and lived in a separate 
hut as a sign that they were free since they had no master 
to serve. The children of such marriages were adopted 
into the tribe and became the children of the nation, since 
they were born in the country and village of the tribe. The 
Indians believed that the children should not be held as 
slaves since they "contributed nothing to their creation." 7 
In the northwest, the distinction between slave and free 

1 Jesuit Relations, xliii, p. 293. 

' Ibid., xliii, p. 293. 

s Ibid., 1, p. 115. 

* Bartram, op. cit., p. 186. 

5 La Hontan, op. cit., ii, p. 613. 

6 Bartram, op. cit., p. 186. 

7 La Hontan, op. cit., ii, p. 474. These freed slaves were accustomed 
to go each day to visit their former masters' graves to offer pipes and 
tobacco in acknowledgment of their freedom. 



295] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE INDIANS THEMSELVES 43 

man was generally sharply drawn with regard to marriage, 
for the slave usually could not marry the free man or wo- 
man, though the Makah men frequently married slave wo- 
men. The children of such marriages appear to have held 
" an equivocal position between free men and slaves." x 

The most common mode of acquiring freedom was 
through adoption into the tribes. Among the tribes of 
the Great Plains and the Atlantic Slope, adoption seems 
to have been universally practiced. The slaves adopted usu- 
ally consisted of war captives, 2 who in some instances were 
adopted wholesale, or who, after a period of servitude in 
the tribe, had proved themselves possessed of certain desir- 
able qualities, such as bravery and strength in war or the 
chase. The adopted person became in every respect the peer 
of his fellow-tribesmen. If he showed his ability he might 
become of high rank in the tribe. If he were a poor hunter, 
a poor provider, or, above all, if he turned out to be a 
coward, he was despised and treated according to his de- 
merits, probably worse than if he had been born a member 
of the tribe. Still, he was a member of the tribe and re- 
mained a free man, though he was deposed from man's 
estate and " made a woman." Adopted persons who 
showed little ability, were sometimes made to serve in the 
families of the influential and prominent men of the tribe; 
but such persons were free, even though they performed 
menial labor. 3 

In some sections, a captive could not become a member 

1 Hodge, op. cit., pt. ii, p. 598. 

1 Ibid., pt. ii, p. 599- 

3 Ibid. For the Iroquois, see Carr, op. cit., p. 18; Margry, op. cit., 
v, p. 8; Jesuit Relations, lxii, p. 63. For the western Indians, see 
Hennepin, op. cit., p. 509; Jesuit Relations, lxix, p. 59. For the north- 
ern Indians, see Catesby. op. cit., ii, p. xiii (editor's note). 



44 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [296 

of a tribe without a relationship of some sort; and to ob- 
tain this, he had to be adopted by a woman as her child. 1 
The captive took the kinship name under the fiction that he 
was " younger " to every living person of the tribe at 
the time, and that all persons subsequently born were 
" younger " to him. If the captive belonged to a tribe 
of hereditary enemies who had from time immemorial been 
designated by opprobrious terms, such as cannibals, liars, 
snakes, etc., it might be that the captive was doomed to per- 
petual " younger brotherhood," and could never exercise 
authority over any person within the tribe, though such per- 
son might have been born after the adoption of the captive. 
Usually, though not invariably, the captives adopted were 
children. They might ultimately become useful members 
of the tribe, and by their virtues even win rank in kinship. 
A captive might thus pass from slavery to freedom. 2 

Occasionally the settlement of intertribal difficulties re- 
sulted in the freeing of the captives by the victors, with 
permission to return to their former homes. Such freedom 
might be given to a whole tribe that had been conquered, 3 
or to single individuals. In either case the stigma of dis- 
grace attached to the condition of slavery still remained, 
and leaders of the tribe were preferably chosen from those 
who had never been slaves.* Exchange or ransom was 
common. If a tribe declared war against another formally, 
which happened but rarely, slaves were sent with the notifi- 
cation of such fact to the enemy, and were given their free- 
dom if they promised not to take up arms against their 

1 Hennepin, op. cit., ii, p. 508. 

* Fifteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 
1893- 1894, P- cxii. 

* Brickell, op. cit., p. 321; Lawson, op. cit., p. 323; Catesby, op. cit., 
ii, p. xiii. 

4 Jesuit Relations, liv, p. 237. 



2 gy] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE INDIANS THEMSELVES 45 

former masters. 1 Freedom was given for performing cer- 
tain services against their masters' enemies, such as in- 
fluencing their own tribe against such enemies. 2 

In concluding this account of the institution of slavery 
among the Indians of the present United States it should 
be stated that no attempt has been made to treat the sub- 
ject in detail. The purpose of the chapter is to show the 
existence of slavery and something of its nature, so as to 
obtain an historical setting for the discussion of the en- 
slavement of the Indians by the whites which is to follow. 
Relatively few of the Indian tribes have been mentioned, but 
these covered sufficient territory to show that the custom of 
slave-holding was practically universal. 3 The familiarity 

1 La Hontan, op. cit., ii, p. 508. 

a Wisconsin Historical Society Collections, xvi, p. 46. 

' The holding of slaves by the Indians continued long after colonial 
times. It naturally died out first in the east, with the growth in 
power of the whites and the consequent decrease in the numbers and 
strength of the Indians. 

The Indians of the Columbia River country held slaves till well 
into the nineteenth century. These they procured by trading beads 
and furs with the interior tribes. Franchere's Narrative, in Thwaites, 
Early Western Travels, vi, p. 324; xxix, p. 242; xxx, p. in. The 
Blackfeet, Cayuse, Crows, and Ute were accustomed to keep the wo- 
men taken in war as slaves, {Ibid., xxiii, p. 118) ; and other neighboring 
tribes did the same. Travelers in Oregon in 1846 found that the 
Oregon Indians enslaved their war captives, and that they made war 
for the purpose of obtaining slaves. Ibid., xxix, p. 124. The Toun- 
gletat, who inhabited Vancouver Island, at the same time had Ind'an 
slaves, captives in war. Ibid., xxix, p. 149. The tribes of the section 
south of the Columbia River country were given over to the same 
custom. Both here, and in the Columbia River country, the Indians 
were heavy gamblers, and not infrequently staked their own freedom 
in their games. Ibid., xxx, p. 161 ; xxvii, p. 171 ; Parker, Journey Be- 
yond the Rocky Mountains, p. 53. The Indians of the extreme north- 
west held slaves in 1840. Considerable numbers were owned by the 
chiefs. These were worth thirty blankets each, and were generally 
purchased from the natives of Queen Charlotte Island, the great slave 



46 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [298 

of the Europeans who came to America with the institution 
of slavery, and the finding of the same custom among the 
Indians themselves, make their carrying on of the practice 
quite natural. 1 

mart of the northwest coast. Bancroft, History of the Northwest 
Coast, ii, pp. 647-649. 

The slaves of the Columbia River country were well treated as long 
as they were able to work. The district was a commercial one, and 
the slaves, as an article of commerce, were valuable. But when a slave 
grew old and was unable to work, he was neglected. The women of 
the tribe had several slaves who were dependent entirely upon their 
will. Slaves could be purchased by the male members of the tribes for 
wives. The Oackinacke Indians, at th s time, possessed bu* few 
slaves, and these were adopted as children and as members of the 
family. Ibid., vii, pp. 103, 107, 303. 

Until 1850, the Thompson Indians of British Columbia enslaved 
captive Indians. Teit, The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, in 
Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, pp. 269, 290. 
In 1836, the Ch'nook Indians possessed Indian slaves. In 1855, the 
Ule sacrificed four slaves, and buried them with one of their chiefs. 
One of these slaves was buried alive. Thomas, Indians of North 
America in Historic Times, p. 369. In 1863, the Cherokee abolished 
slavery by law. This was amended in 1866, so as to permit it as a 
punishment for crime. Thwaites, Early Western Travels, xx, p. 303. 

1 Enslavement of the whites by the Indians was not uncommon. 
Cabeza de Vaca and other survivors of Narvaez's expedit on were 
made slaves by the Indians among whom they wandered. Narrative 
of Cabeza de Vaca, in Narratives of Early American History, i, pp. 
64, 69. So'o found one of these survivors, Juan Ort z by name, who 
had taken on Indian customs, and nearly forgotten his native lan- 
guage. " Relation of Biedma," in Bourne, Narratives of the Career 
of De Soto, ii, p. 3. 

Strachey, The Historie of Travaile into Virginia, speaks of a story 
that he had heard from the Ind ans, concerning an Indian chief, Eya- 
noco by name, liv'ng somewhere to the south of Virginia, who had 
seven white slaves who had escaped from the massacre at Roanoke. 
These slaves the Indians employed in beating copper. Hakluyt Society 
Publication, vi, p. 26. Whether the s'ory is wholly or partly true has 
never been determined. That the Indians of the locality d d enslave 
the whites captured in war or shipwrecked off the coast ; s shown by 
the preamble of an act of Carolina in 1707. North Carolina Colonial 
Records, i, p. 674. In the war of 171 1, the Indians spared some of the 



299] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE INDIANS THEMSELVES ^y 

women and children captured on the plantations so that they might 
serve as slaves. Ibid., i, p. 182. 

Captain Hendrickson, in 1616, found three persons belong'ng to the 
Dutch West India Company, who were slaves of the Mohawk and 
Minquae, and who were traded to him for merchandise. Hazard, 
Annals of Pennsylvania, p. 7. 

Father Bressani was captured in 1644 by the Iroquois, and given 
to a woman as a slave. She sent him to Fort Orange, where he w is 
ransomed by the Dutch and returned to France. Jesuit Re'ations, 
xxvi, p. 49. Other Jesuits were enslaved by the Iroquo's. Basque- 
ville de la Potherie, Histoire de I'Amerique Septentrionale, iv, pp. 125- 
163. French men, women and children had a similar fate. Jesuit 
Relations, xl, p. 137; xlvi, p. 207. Some of them were ransomed and 
freed by the Dutch. Margry, op. cit., vi, pp. 123, 125. Joutel, in 1687, 
feared that he would be enslaved by the Cenis, and put to work in 
their mines along with their Indian slaves. Margry, op. cit., iii, p. 339. 
After the dea h of La Salle, and the massacre of most of his fol- 
lowers in 1687, the children who were spared were taken captive by 
the Span'sh Indians, and sent to Mexico as slaves.. Margry, op. cit., 
hi, p. 339. Saint Denis, in 1721, certified that he had been eleven 
months a slave among the savages of the west Mississippi coun'ry. 
Robinson, Account of Discoveries in the West, etc., p. 215. As late 
as 1754, the Indians of Virg'nia had French prisoners as slaves. 
Virginia Historical Society Collections, iii, p. 267. 

In the time of King Philip's War, Mrs. Rowlandson of Lancaster 
was taken prisoner by the Indians and sold to a Narraganset chief 
whose slave she became. Clark, History of King Philip, p. 290. Dur- 
ing the various colonial wars, many Englishmen were taken by the 
Indians as slaves and sold to the French in Canada. Massachusetts 
Archives, lxxiv, p. 57. 



CHAPTER II 
Enslavement by the Spaniards 

In their attitude toward the Indians the Spaniards sim- 
ply applied the theory of their time regarding slavery. The 
taking of slaves was then considered part of any expedition 
of discovery or conquest. The high authority of the 
Church sanctioned the institution of slavery to the extent 
that the leading theologians had declared all barbarous and 
infidel nations who shut their ears to the truths of Chris- 
tianity, fair objects of rapine, captivity and slavery. 1 

The general feeling regarding the relation of the Indians 
to the Spaniards is well expressed by Hernando de 
Escalante Fontanedo, who was with Menendez in Florida 
as interpreter. In writing of Florida, he declared it his be- 
lief that the Indians " can never be made submissive and 
become Christians " ; so he advocated that they all be taken, 
" placed on ships, and scattered throughout the various 
islands, and even on the Spanish Main, where they might 
be sold as His Majesty sells his vessels to the grandees in 
Spain." 2 

Given this attitude on the subject it was but natural that 
the enslavement of the American Indians should begin 
with the discovery of the Antilles, 3 and that it should be 

1 Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Cath- 
olic, edition of 1838, i, p. 390; ii, p. 40. 

2 French, op. cit., series 2, p. 263. 

3 For slaves taken by Columbus on his three voyages, see Journal of 
Columbus' First Voyage, in Original Narratives of Early American 
History, i, pp. 112, 306; Thacher, Christopher Columbus, His Life, His 
Work, His Remains, etc., ii, pp. 301, 357, 393, 585, 644, 685. 

48 [300 



301] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE SPANIARDS 4 g 

continued by the explorers on the mainland. The Spanish 
exploring expeditions were war expeditions in the sense 
that they aimed to conquer and retain for the crown the 
territory through which they passed. All these expeditions 
captured and retained Indians as slaves. Yet in some cases 
it might be difficult to determine whether the Indians en- 
slaved were captives taken in actual warfare, or whether 
they were merely kidnapped by the expedition passing 
through their territory. Often the expeditions possessed 
the double character of a war party and a kidnapping 
company. 

The enslavement of the Indians by the Spaniards in the 
early years of occupation was legalized by a royal decree 
which declared the act to be in accord with the laws of 
God and man, and justified it on the ground that Indians 
could otherwise not be reclaimed from idolatry and con- 
verted to Christianity. Consistent with its assertion the 
home government made careful provision, in the various 
patents issued to the explorers, for the spiritual welfare 
of the enslaved Indians. 

These patents commonly made provision for the acquisi- 
tion of Indian slaves. That of Ponce de Leon, February 
23, 1 5 12, authorizing his voyage of discovery and coloni- 
zation, provided that the Indians on the islands he might 
discover should be distributed among the members of the 
expedition, that the discoverers should be well provided for 
in the first allotment of slaves, and that they should "derive 
whatever advantage might be secured thereby." * The 
" cedula," issued to Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, in 1523, au- 
thorized him to " purchase prisoners of war held as slaves 

1 Lowery, The Spanish Settlements within the Present Limits of the 
United States, 1513-1561, p. 136.. According to the patent, the king 
was to name the individuals who should distribute the slaves. Ibid., 
p. 136. 



5 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [302 

by the natives, to employ them on his farms and export 
them as he saw fit, without the payment of any duty what- 
ever upon them; formal apportionment of the natives was 
expressly forbidden. 1 In the patent to Soto, also, it was 
required that he should carry with him " the religious and 
priests, who shall be appointed by us, for the instruction 
of the natives of that province in our holy Catholic faith." 2 
The idea of Christianizing the natives was applied to both 
free and slave Indians. The taking of captives by force, 
and then Christianizing them was the continuation of what 
was known as " the exercise of a just and pious doctrine 
against pagans and heathens,'' a doctrine common to other 
nations as well as to Spain. The patent of Ponce de Leon, 
however, made no provision for Christianizing the Indians. 3 
His instructions from the crown required him to summon 
the natives by " requisition " to embrace the Catholic faith 
and yield to the king of Spain under threat of sword and 
slavery. 4 Consequently the Spanish explorers within the 
present limits of the United States continued the policy of 
enslaving Indians pursued by their countrymen elsewhere 
in the New World. 

1 Lowery, The Spanish Settlements within the Present Limits of the 
United States, 1513-1561, p. 162. 

1 Shea, The Catholic Church in Colonial Days, p. 112; Lowery, op. 
cit., p. 136. 

3 For this reason he took no monks or priests with him. Lowery, 
op. cit., p. 136. 

* The proclamation of Ponce de Leon is quoted in Helps, The Con- 
querors of the New World and Their Bondsmen, etc., ii, pp. 111-116. 
This peculiar summons to surrender had been used by the Spanish 
explorers and conquerors since 1509. After telling the Indians of the 
creation of the world, it traced the title thereto to St. Peter, and thence 
to the ruling pope. It cited also the grant of the Indies by the pope to 
the sovereigns of Castile; and after urging the Ind'ans to acknowledge 
their fealty to these sovereigns, it threatened them with war and slavery 
if they refused. 



303] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE SPANIARDS ci 

A Spanish ship sailing under Esteban Gomez, a Por- 
tuguese, in 1525, coasted along the shores of North 
America between Nova Scotia and Florida, seeking the 
northwest passage, and carried a few Indians back to 
Spain. 1 In April, 1528, the expedition of Panfilo de Nar- 
vaez landed near the entrance to Tampa Bay on the west 
coast of Florida. From this point a portion of the ex- 
pedition started into the interior. The first Indians met 
seemed unfriendly, and five or six of them were seized. 2 
On one occasion, a cacique, or chief, was held prisoner. 3 
But supplies failed and discouragement followed, so the 
number of Indians taken was not great. In 1538, also, 
an expedition sent out by Hernando de Soto brought two 
natives from Florida to Cuba, where they were held to 
learn the Spanish language in order that they might act as 
guides and interpreters for the expedition of the following 
year. 4 

In 1539, Soto himself landed in the Bay of Espiritu 
Santo in Florida for the purpose of conquest. He had 
served under Pizarro in Peru, and his methods were those 
learned from his master. 5 To insure success all opposition 
must be overcome, so, with the expedition were taken 
blood-hounds, chains and iron collars for the catching and 
holding of Indian slaves. 6 The expedition was military in 
nature, hence it was natural that force and conquest should 
precede conciliation. There is no doubt that one of the 

1 Lowery, op. cit., p. 169. 

' The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca, in Original Narratives of Early 
American History, ii, p. 25. 

* Ibid., ii, p. 30. 

4 Bourne, op. cit., i, p. 20. 

5 Buckingham Smith, Life of De Soto, p. 170. 

* Bourne, op. cit., ii, pp. 60, 94, 97, 103, 105. 



5 2 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [304 

purposes of Soto was to capture Indian slaves. He had 
chosen as his lieutenant, a rich resident of the town of 
Trinidad in Cuba, Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa, who had 
come to Florida with the object of obtaining Indian slaves 
for his estates. But slaves were not easily obtainable near 
the coast, so Porcallo returned home shortly after. 1 Soto 
himself was a slave owner. Among his possessions in 
Cuba were Indian slaves, whom he employed as herdsmen 
and in getting gold. In some cases, the Indian chiefs 
through whose territories Soto and his men were passing, 
furnished slaves. At other times, they, both men and wo- 
men, were taken by force. Narrators relate the capture and 
distribution of such women in groups of one hundred to 
three hundred. 2 Among the captives were a queen and a 
cacique. 3 

After the survivors of Soto's expedition had reached 
Mexico, Viceroy Mendoza dispatched the Franciscan, Fray 
Marcos de Niza, in 1539, to inform the native tribes that an 
effectual stop had been put to the enslavement of the In- 
dians. Some of the friar's party reached Hawaikuh, the 
southernmost of the seven cities of Cibola. The account 
which the friar gave on his return, induced the viceroy to 
send out another expedition in the following year, 1540. 
The command of this was given to Francisco Vasquez de 
Coronado. 4 

1 Bourne, op. cit., i, p. 34. 

* Ibid., i, p. 45; ii, pp. 25, 121. 

s Ibid., i, p. 70; ii, pp. 72, 75, 117, 129. 

* Coronado, in his letter to Mendoza, August 3, 1540, mentions both 
negroes and Indians in the expedition. He does not allude to their 
being slaves. In other parts of the letter, he ment'ons friendly Indians 
accompanying the expedition. Coronado's Letter to Mendoza, in the 
Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology; 
Shea, The Catholic Church in Colonial Days, p. 114. 



305] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE SPANIARDS 53 

But Coronado did not carry out the intention of Mendoza 
regarding the Indians. The records of his expedition do 
not indicate the number of his slaves as equal to that in 
Soto's expedition, yet Coronado was a man of his time, 
and Mendoza was ultra humanitarian. When Tiguex was 
conquered and plundered, March, 1541, Coronado im- 
prisoned and made servants of all the people, one hundred 
and fifty men, women and children who were in it. 1 

Still other Spanish expeditions were nothing more than 
slave raids or kidnapping excursions. In 1520, Lucas 
Vasquez de Ayllon, a wealthy resident of Hispaniola, de- 
termined to send out a ship for the purpose of exploring 
the section north of that covered by Ponce de Leon in 15 13. 
His caravel met among the Bahamas a second ship sent out 
by another resident of Hispaniola to obtain Indian slaves. 
The two vessels joined company, and proceeded toward the 
continent, which they reached June 25, 1521, in the neigh- 
borhood of the River Jordan (the present Santee or Com- 
bahee) and the cape afterward called Cabo de Santa Elena. 
By gifts and proffers of friendship, the Indians were lured 
on board, and the ships, having obtained a full cargo, set 
sail for Hispaniola. 2 

After the collapse of Narvaez's expedition, Cabeza de 
Vaca wandered through the southwest, hoping to reach 
Spanish settlements. As he proceeded, he met, thirty 
leagues from St. Miguel, a Spanish expedition coming from 
the south, from which the Indians were fleeing lest they be 
captured and held as slaves. Though this slave hunting ex- 
pedition met with considerable success, its leaders, never- 
theless, wished to enslave the friendly Indians who had 

1 The Narrative of the Expedition of Coronado, by Pedro de Casta- 
iieda, in Original Narratives of Early American History, ii, p. 324. 

8 Lowery, op. cit., pp. 156-157; Martin, The History of North Carolina 
from the Earliest Period, i, p. 2. 



c 4 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [306 

guided Cabeza de Vaca and his companions thither. 1 Cabeza 
de Vaca relates that he continued his journey to Compos- 
tella in the company, among others, of six Christians and 
five hundred Indian slaves. 2 

Such expeditions from Mexico were continued until well 
into the colonial period. The Indians whom La Salle met, 
1684-1688, told him they knew whites toward the west, 
" a cruel, wicked nation, who depopulated the country 
round them." 3 

It will be seen that the custom of enslaving Indians was 
general among the Spanish discoverers and explorers. Not 
to have followed such a custom would have been acting 
contrary to the spirit of the times. Church and State sanc- 
tioned it. The need for a servile class, and the supply of 
natives near at hand to meet the demand, made enslavement 
only a matter of course. Slavery existed among the na- 
tive tribes themselves and the tribal chiefs readily furthered 
the policy of the Spaniards by furnishing them with addi- 
tional slaves and prisoners. Consequently, when the action 
of the Spaniards is viewed from the moral standpoint of 
the time, no condemnation can be attached to their practice 
of enslaving the aborigines. 

Some of the Indians used by the Spanish explorers were 
obtained from the Indian tribes through purchase or trade. 
Such a method of obtaining them was advisable when the 
tribes were friendly and it was not politic to arouse their 
enmity. Prisoners and slaves, accordingly, both men and 

1 The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca in Original Narratives of Early 
American History, i, pp. 25-118. Among the Indians of this region, 
who were carried away into captivity, were Yaqui who long after- 
wards remained hostile to the whites. 

2 Bancroft, History of the North Mexican States, i, p. 59. 

8 French, op. cit., pt. iv, p. 201 ; Shea, Discovery and Exploration of 
the Mississippi J 'alley, p. 201. 



•707] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE SPANIARDS 55 

women, were traded or presented as gifts, along with other 
merchandise, to the Spaniards. 1 

In all the exploring expeditions, the need of guides, in- 
terpreters, camp laborers and burden bearers was impera- 
tive. At one time, Soto possessed eight hundred Indians, 
given him by an Indian chief, to act as porters. 2 The 
leaders must have some means of rewarding the services of 
their soldiers. Gold and other desirable objects were scarce. 
Indian slaves helped satisfy this need. Soto had the fore- 
sight, before setting out on his journey of exploration, to 
provide guides, consisting of Indian slaves seized in the 
territory which he expected to traverse, 3 and seized others 
to act in this capacity as occasion required. 4 Slaves were 
used for the same purpose by Coronado. 5 The women 
slaves were used largely as cooks and as mistresses. Soto 
apportioned women slaves among his men. 6 The narrators 
relate the capture and distribution of such women in groups 
of one hundred to three hundred. 7 Women were some- 
times given by the chiefs to the white men for this purpose, 
as in the case of Coronado's expedition. 8 

In general, the treatment of slaves must have depended 
upon the individual owners. It must be noted that it was 

1 For such instances in Soto's journey, see Bourne, op. cit. For Coro- 
nado's journey, see Original Narratives of Early American History, 
ii, pp. 289, 329, 342; Narrative of Jaramillo, in Fourteenth Annual Re- 
port of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 

1 Bourne, op. cit., ii, p. 11. 

1 Ibid., 1, p. 20. 

* Ibid., ii, p. 55- 

4 The Narrative of the Expedition of Coronado, by Castafieda, in 
Original Narratives of Early American History, ii, pp. 329, 342. 

8 Bourne, op. cit., ii, pp. 21, 1 17. 

7 Ibid., i, p. 45 ; «, PP- 25, 121. 

8 The Narrative of the Expedition of Coronado, by Castafieda, in 
Original Narratives of Early American History, ii, p. 289. 



5 6 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [308 

held an act of clemency on the part of the victor to enslave 
rather than to slaughter the captives taken in war, for, ac- 
cording to the ideas of the time, conquered enemies were at 
the disposal of the conquerors. In the case of Soto's ex- 
pedition, the treatment of the slaves appears, on the whole, 
to have been kind. After the death of Soto, the Spaniards 
decided to quit the scene of exploration. The Indian slaves 
could not be taken, for there was no way of transporting 
them, so it was decided to dismiss them, except about three 
hundred belonging to the leader Moscoso and some of his 
friends. To satisfy others who desired to take their In- 
dians with them, Moscoso granted permission to take the 
slaves as far as the mouth of the river. The owners, 
moved by an humanitarian motive, and preferring to give 
up the Indians before sailing, rather than to free them at 
the mouth of the river to become the prey of enemies, set 
free five hundred men, women and children. 1 Many of 
them had learned to speak Spanish, had become Chris- 
tians, and were so attached to their Spanish owners that 
they wept bitterly at the separation. This scene indicates 
an affection between master and slaves that would exist only 
with kind treatment. It has been held that Soto's treat- 
ment of the Indians was probably better than that practiced 
by most of the discoverers — a treatment at least partly dic- 
tated by policy, for the Indians of the section traversed by 
him were superior to those of Central and South America, 
both in courage and perseverance. 2 Those Indians who 
continued the journey with the Spaniards were set free by 
the viceroy on reaching Mexico. 3 In the siege of Tigeux 

1 Bourne, op. cit., i, pp. 193-194. 

7 Fairbanks, History of Florida from Its Discovery, etc., p. 58. 

* Lowery, The Spanish Settlements within the Present Limits of the 
United States, 1513-1561, pp. 249 (note), 357, 415, 417. 



309] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE SPANIARDS 57 

Coronado's men cared for those Indians who, in trying to 
escape, were overcome by wounds and cold. 1 Special cases 
of cruelty occurred. Strict vigilance and severe punish- 
ment were necessary to prevent treachery on the part of the 
slaves. The cruelty of the age was expressed by throwing 
a lying and treacherous Indian to the dogs, 2 by cutting off 
the hands and noses of some, 3 and by keeping others in 
chains. 4 On the whole, however, the treatment of the 
slaves was probably no more cruel than that shown slaves 
elsewhere, nor than would be expected considering the ten- 
dency of the age, the nature of the owners, largely soldiers 
and adventurers, and the incapacity and disinclination of 
the natives for many kinds of labor. 

The manumission of slaves depended partly on the in- 
dividual owners, partly on the leaders of the various ex- 
peditions. An instance of the latter kind we have already 
seen in the case of Moscoso freeing the slaves when quitting 
the scene of Soto's expedition. But such an incident was 
the exception rather than the rule, for slaves were the per- 
sonal property of their individual owners, and subject to 
their action. 

By the law of 1543, the Spanish government intended to 
end Indian slavery in its American dominions, 5 but the law 
was ineffectual. The American possessions were too far 
removed for thorough control by the home government. 
When Spain took final possession of Louisiana, in 1769, 
O'Reilly discovered that the French held many Indian 

1 The Narrative of the Expedition of Coronado, by Castaneda, in 
Original Narratives of Early American History, ii, p. 324. 

2 Bourne, op. cit., i, p. 177; ii, p. 60. 

3 Ibid., i, pp. 102, 139, 171, 191; ii, pp. 80, 121. 

4 Ibid., i, pp. 44, 84, 93; ii, pp. 94, 97, 103, 105, 106, no, 112, 113, 115, 
116, 117. 

5 See Lucas and Stevens, The New Laws of the Indies. 



eg INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [3^ 

slaves, and in a proclamation, which he issued in 1770, de- 
clared this to be " contrary to the wise and pious laws of 
Spain." While not at once declaring these Indian slaves 
to be free, he ordered that the actual proprietors should not 
dispose, in any manner whatever, of those whom they held, 
unless it were to give them their freedom, until the orders 
of his Majesty on the subject should be received, and 
further, that all owners of Indian slaves should make a 
declaration of name and nation of the Indians so held in 
slavery by them, and the price at which they valued such 
slaves. This proclamation was generally understood by 
the French settlers of upper Louisiana as emancipating all 
the Indian slaves ; yet the latter remained in slavery, either 
voluntarily or otherwise. They obtained some benefit from 
O'Reilly's decree, however, for when they escaped they were 
not returned to slavery, and when they sued for their free- 
dom they received it. Thus, in 1786, Governor Miro, in a 
case that came before him from St. Louis, rendered a judg- 
ment that liberated several such slaves. This judgment re- 
minded Lieutenant Governor Cruzat that the ordinance of 
O'Reilly was not being obeyed, so in June, 1787, he issued 
a proclamation that Indians could not be held in slavery 
under the ordinance of 1770, and declared that he " judged 
it expedient to repeat the aforesaid ordinance, so that the 
public might know its tenor in order to conform to it." 
Accordingly the said ordinance was ordered to be read, pub- 
lished and posted in the customary places. No order on 
this subject was received from the king, so Baron Caron- 
delet, 1794, ordered two Indian slaves to abide with their 
masters until the royal will was expressed. In the same 
year, however, he ordered another Indian slave to be re- 
leased. 1 

1 Houck, History of Missouri, ii, p. 240; Wheeler, A Practical Treat- 
ise of the Law of Slavery, pp. 12-14. O'Reilly's instructions to the 



31 1 ] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE SPANIARDS 59 

It is evident, therefore, that it was not through direct 
executive decree that Indian slavery passed out of exist- 
ence in Spanish territory within the present limits of the 
United States. In fact, from the instance cited in con- 
nection with Louisiana, it is seen that it did not pass out of 
existence until after the colonial period. Certain causes, 
however, contributed to its decline. Great number of In- 
dians could be hired, at very small wages, to perform labor 
of any extent. 1 Still another cause, which was less ef- 
fective perhaps in Spanish territory than in that of France 
and England, was the use of negro slaves. The labor of 
the blacks was early found to be more profitable than that 
of the Indians, and as early as the founding of St. Augus- 
tine, Menendez imported into Florida five hundred negro 
slaves. Otherwise, " the labor of building that town would 
have fallen on the white men, and on the Indians whom 
he could impress." 2 

From the earliest days of Spanish occupancy, the spirit- 
ual welfare of the Indians was of much concern to the 
Spanish Church and State. The materialization of such an 
interest was largely accomplished by the establishment of 
missions throughout the Spanish territory from Florida 
to California, chiefly through the labors of the Franciscans. 
The endeavors of the missionaries resulted in the establish- 
ment by 161 5 of twenty missions in Florida and the de- 
pendent coast region. By 1655, the Christian Indian popu- 
lation of northern Florida and the Georgia coast was esti- 
mated at 26,000. 3 By 1630, there were more than 60,000 

various commandants at Natchitoches, the coast and elsewhere, are 
given in Gayarre, History of Louisiana, Spanish Domination, pp. 20, 25. 

1 Bancroft, History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1 530-1888, p. 132. 

1 Lowery, The Spanish Settlements within the Present Limits of the 
United States, Florida, 1562-1574, pp. 145-160. 

3 Hodge, op. cit., pt. i, p. 874. 



60 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [312 

'" converts " in the Pueblo missions of New Mexico and 
Arizona. 1 In California, the missions, the first of which 
was founded at San Diego in 1769, continued in a fairly 
prosperous condition until 1834. 2 

These large numbers of barbarian neophytes were pre- 
sided over in each of the missions by a very small number 
of monks who directed the religious and industrial activities 
of their Indian charges. It was necessary that a mission 
should be self-supporting. The Indians gathered at these 
centers voluntarily, and submitted to the routine life of 
the missions. But the natives were ignorant and incapable, 
and the monks were in consequence the directing and guid- 
ing force among a population which responded in a mechan- 
ical sort of way. The natural result was that the mission 
life developed into a kind of slavery. The life of a Cali- 
fornia mission, though of later date, and more fully de- 
veloped than the earlier missions of colonial times, affords a 
picture of the general condition of affairs. 

The Indians constructed the buildings, planted and culti- 
vated the fruit trees and vineyards, tended the cattle, made 
pottery, wove cloths and performed, in fact, all the manual 
labor that was necessarily required in an extensive colony. 
In return, they received food, clothing and lodging, were 
instructed in the Church doctrines and observances, and 
were taught dancing and music and occasionally the rudi- 
ments of reading, writing and arithmetic. Their life was 
a regular routine, and though material comfort was gener- 
ally in evidence, still the Indian neophytes were never al- 
lowed to act on their own initiative. Beyond their exist- 
ence from day to day, they received no pecuniary reward 
for their labors, any more than if they had been slaves. 3 

1 Hodge, op. cit., pt. i, p. 893. 2 Ibid., pt. i, pp. 894-895.. 

3 Ibid., pt. i, p. 895 ; Bancroft, History of California, i, p. in ; Coman, 
Economic Beginnings of the Far West, i, pp. 100-101, 147-155. 



313] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE SPANIARDS 6 1 

The Indians of the missions were generally tractable, but 
occasionally the desire for their former life of freedom 
brought reaction and rebellions ; or, incited and aided by 
the wild tribes, they rose and destroyed the missions. The 
revolt of the Pima in 1750 is a case in point. 1 

The " alcaldes," or local officials to whom the king had 
entrusted the protection of the Indians, instead of protect- 
ing them, preyed upon them for their own profit. These 
men, like many of the colonists themselves, were often of 
an inferior class, and too far from the central government 
to feel any special fear at disobeying the laws that the home 
government might make with regard to the natives. Ac- 
cordingly the Indians were often induced to run into debt, 
and had in consequence to mortgage or sell whatever prop- 
erty they possessed. They thus became subject to what- 
ever impositions the officials chose to put upon them. 2 In 
1792, Fray Juan Agustin de Morfi complained to the vice- 
roy of New Spain that from each pueblo in their respective 
jurisdictions, the " alcaldes " in Texas were accustomed 
to levy weekly contributions of produce ; that they required 
the Indians to perform free labor upon their estates; that 
they demanded heavy tolls from each pueblo at harvest 
time; that the Indian women were forced to grind the 
"alcaldes'" grain; that some officials required tithes of 
fleeces and compelled the Indians to weave them; and that 
the Indians had to serve as mule drivers and care for the 
animals of the "alcaldes." 3 The attitude of the "alcaldes" 
toward the Indians, furthermore, was repeated by the offi- 
cials of the " presidios," or frontier posts. 4 

1 Hodge, op. cit., pt. i, p. 894. 

2 Coman, op. cit., ii, pp. 28-29, 31-32, 144. 

3 Ibid., i, pp. 40-44. 

4 Ibid., i, p. 09. 



6 2 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [314 

The same method of obtaining cheap labor was followed 
by the colonists. Frequent raids were made upon the 
" rancherias," or Indian settlements, to secure agricultural 
workers, herdsmen and domestic servants. Children were 
usually in demand, but adults also were taken. The prac- 
tice continued, indeed, until late in the eighteenth century. 1 

1 Barrett, The Ethno-Geography of the Porno and NeigJiboring In- 
dians, in University of California Publications in American Archaeology 
and Ethnology, vi, p. 45. 



CHAPTER III 
Enslavement by the French 

In the French colonies of America, Indian slavery was 
never authorized by legal declaration during the early 
colonial period. 1 In fact, the matter received no attention 
whatever from the home government. Such lack of notice 
on the part of the monarch was due to the insignificance of 
American affairs in general, and to the unimportance of the 
institution of Indian slavery in particular. Gradually, how- 
ever, as the matter began to assume importance in the 
system of trade, through the influence of the trading com- 
panies certain indirect royal action was taken in the eigh- 
teenth century, and this action recognized the existing in- 
stitution as legal. The modifications which the king sought 
to accomplish in it did not aim to destroy the institution, 
but rather tended to make it better suited to the require- 
ments of trade. 

Some doubt appears to have existed regarding the legal 
status of Indian slaves, and, in order to remove it, Jacques 
Raudot, the intendant at Quebec, decreed in April, 1709, 
that " all the Pawnis and Negroes, who have been bought 
and who shall be purchased hereafter, shall belong in full 
proprietorship to those who have purchased them as their 
slaves." 2 The state of unrest caused by the " coureurs de 

1 The edict of Louis XIV in 1688 authorizing the importation of 
slaves related only to negroes from Africa. Hamilton, Slavery in 
Canada, in Transactions of the Canadian Institute. 1890, i, p. 102. 

2 Hamilton, op. cit., in Transactions of the Canadian Institute, 1800, 
i, p. 102; Memoires et Documents Reiatifs a 1'Histoire du Canada, p. 5. 

315] 63 



64 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [316 

bois " and others stirring up the tribes in order to take 
captives for sale to the French as slaves, interfered with 
the success of the trading corporation then in possession 
of Louisiana, and on October 25, 1720, the Company of the 
Indies issued a command from Paris, stating that such ac- 
tion was contrary to the command of the king, and harm- 
ful to both the commercial welfare of the Company and the 
establishments which it hoped to make in the territory of 
the Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas tribes. The Sieur de 
Bourgmont, in the service of the Company in that area, was 
directed to arrest and confiscate the merchandise of the 
" voyageurs " who should come to trade within the confines 
of his jurisdiction without first obtaining permission and 
declaring to him the motives with which they wished to 
trade. Bienville, then in immediate charge of the colony 
in Louisiana, was directed to execute this order of the 
Company at once, and all other officers as well were en- 
joined to carry it out and to give any aid and assistance to 
M. de Bourgmont which he might require in fulfilling his 
instructions. 1 

On July 23, 1745, the royal council at Paris sanctioned 
the possession of Indian slaves by declaring that all slaves 
who might follow the enemy to the colonies of France, and 
their effects, should belong to his most Christian Majesty. 2 
After the acquisition of Canada the Parliament of Great 
Britain showed itself favorable to the importation of 
slaves into the colonies. Accordingly, the forty-seventh 
article of the capitulation of September 8, 1760, provided: 
" The negroes and Pawnees, of both sexes, shall remain in 
their quality of slaves, in the possession of French and 
Canadians to whom they belong ; they shall be at liberty to 

1 Margry, op. cit., vi, p. 316. 

1 Hamilton, op. cit., in Transactions of the Canadian Institute, 1890, 
i, p. 102. 



317] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE FRENCH 65 

keep them in their service in the colony, or to sell them; 
and they shall also continue to bring them up in the Roman 
religion." x 

Public opinion in France never concerned itself with the 
matter of Indian slavery. There appears to have been no 
opposition to it, either in France or in the French colonies 
of America. Public opinion early countenanced the in- 
stitution of slavery in the colonies without distinction of 
color or race. 2 It was negro slavery that brought profit 
to the trader as well as to the colonist. The Indian slave 
in the French colonies possessed no champion, such as the 
Indian slave in the Spanish territory had in Las Casas. 
Within the French territory under discussion, negro slavery 
continued, without meeting violent opposition, as long as the 
territory remained under French control. And with it con- 
tinued Indian slavery, gradually growing weaker as negro 
slavery grew stronger, and so less likely to attract attention. 

Much of the French exploration was carried on by the 
missionaries. Slave holding was not inconsistent with the 
belief of these religious travelers. 3 Two objects inspired 
their zeal : the " greater glory of God," and " the influence 
and credit of the order of Jesus," of which many of them 

1 Hamilton, op. cit., in Transactions of the Canadian Institute, 1890, 
i, p. 102; New York Colonial Documents, x, p. 11 18 General Amherst, 
the English commander and agent in the negotiations, wrote oppos te 
the proposition : " Granted, except those who shall have been made 
prisoners." 

Though the word " Pawnee," in the records, seems to have special 
reference to Indian slaves, it is sometimes used by the old Canadian 
writers to signify all persons in servitude, without regard to color. 
Hamilton, op. cit., in Transactions of the Canadian Institute, 1890, 
i, p- 107. 

2 In 1557, ten young Brazilian Indians were purchased by Villegaignon, 
and sent to France as a gift to King Henry II. The king distributed 
them among the nobles of his court. Lescarbot, Histoire de la Nou- 
velle-France, i, p. 174. 

' See Transactions of the Canadian Institute, ii, p. 173. 



66 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [318 

were members. 1 To the missionaries about to start from 
Paris to explore the Ottawa country, the direction was 
given : " Remember it is Christ and the Cross you are seek- 
ing, and if you aim at anything else, you will get nothing 
but affliction for body and mind." 2 The Jesuit held that 
if the object was good, the action was right. It would 
redound to the glory of God to convert any heathen, bond 
or free; therefore, slave holding by a monk was legitimate. 
The records do not show any great numbers of slaves 
owned by the missionary explorers. There are certain 
reasons why this was so. Abnegation of self was a part 
of the Jesuitic doctrine, so the monk could have no need 
for any considerable number of personal attendants. He 
possessed no mines or lands for the working of which slaves 
could be used. What services the fathers could not per- 
form in the extension of their faith, were performed partly 
by servants brought from France, and partly by " donnes/' 
or those who voluntarily gave their labor. At the mis- 
sions 3 and in the Indian villages where the missionaries 
stayed, the Indians rendered them free service and fur- 
nished them with supplies. Then, too, the Indian domestic 
did not prove very satisfactory. 4 The slave was a subject 
for conversion, but the French missionary did not spend 
much time on the conversion of single individuals. Fie 

1 Parkman, The Discovery of the Great JVest, sixth edition, p. 27. 

* Thwaites, Father Marquette, p. 34. 

1 It should be noted that the missions never attained the same promi- 
nence among the French, with'n the limits of the present United States, 
as among the Spaniards. " The neophyte was too much a child, too- 
much a slave, too little a man " to please the Frenchman. 

* Margry, op. cit., v, p. 162. La Salle, on his expedition, employed 
Indian hunters who were not slaves. Joutel's Journal of La Salle's 
Last Voyage, pp. 20, 76, 82, 94, 95, 97, 98; Parkman, The Discovery of 
the Great West, sixth edition, pp. 144, 356. 



319] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE FRENCH 67 

aimed rather to collect the heathen in groups about a reli- 
gious center, and to guide and teach them somewhat after 
the manner of his brethren in Paraguay. Yet we find that 
the French missionaries possessed some Indian slaves. 1 It 
would not do to refuse to save any soul, neither was it ad- 
visable to risk the chance of offending any Indian, whatever 
his rank, who might make them the gift of a slave. Most 
of the slaves held by the missionaries appear to have been 
gifts. Sometimes to accept such a slave was to save the 
person from death. Some of the slaves were purchased. 
By teaching them the French language, and the principles 
of the Christian Church, the clergy hoped to make mis- 
sionaries of some of them, and so extend the scope of their 
religion. 

The chief, though not the earliest, source of Indian slaves 
among the French was that of captives taken in war with 
the Indian tribes. For many years after the coming of 
the French to Louisiana, they and the Natchez Indians lived 
in friendly intercourse. Minor Indian troubles in 1 7 1 1 2l 
and 1715 3 resulted in the enslavement and transportation 
of certain Indians to Cape Frangois on the island of Haiti. 
The hostilities begun with the Natchez Indians in 171 5 con- 
tinued intermittently until 1740. 4 In 1730, because of ill 
treatment by M. clu Chapart, governor of Fort Rosalie, who 
wished the site of a Natchez village on which to build a 
town, and because of other abuses, the Natchez rose against 
the French and massacred over two hundred of them. 5 

1 Jesuit Relations, xxx, p. 133. 

1 Archives du Ministre des Colonies, C. 13. . . Correspondance Gen- 
erate, ii, 1707-1712. 

3 Lowry and McCardle, A History of Mississippi from the Discovery, 
etc., second edition, p. 84. 

* Thwaites, Early Western Travels, xiii, p. 179. 

5 Thomas, The Indians of North America, etc., p. 321. 



68 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [320 

Governor Perier formed an army and advanced against 
them in their fort. The Natchez offered to leave the place 
if their lives were spared. Their offer was accepted, but 
they were detained as prisoners, all but twenty who es- 
caped. 1 About four hundred and fifty of the tribe, includ- 
ing the Great Sun, the Little Sun and several of the prin- 
cipal war chiefs, were captured and carried to New Orleans. 2 
The women and children were retained as slaves on the 
plantations. Some of the prisoners were burned in New 
Orleans. 3 The Great Sun, the Little Sun, their families, 
and more than four hundred of the captives, were sent at 
once to Cape Francois, Haiti, and most of them sold to the 
planters as slaves. 4 The two chiefs and their families 
were retained as prisoners on the island. On April 22, 
1 73 1, the minister informed the Company that, in his 
opinion, the only solution of the matter lay in selling as 
slaves the survivors of the two families. The registers of 
the Company contain the following record : " It was re- 
solved to order the sale of the survivors of the said two 
families of Natchez Indians." B 

1 Garneau, Histoire du Canada, etc., fourth edition, ii, p. 95. " The 
number of the Natchez that escaped the grasp of Perier, at this time, 
has been put down by some writers as three hundred warriors." 
French, Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, series 5, p. 102. 

1 Hodge, op. cit., pt. ii, p. 36; Monette, History of the Discovery and 
Settlement of the Valley of the Mississippi, etc., i, p. 272, states the 
number as four hundred and twenty-seven. Lowry and McCardle, 
op. cit., p. 85, place the number as forty-five male Indians, and four 
hundred and fifty women and children. 

1 Pittman, The Present State of the European Settlements on the 
Mississippi, Hodder edition, p. 80. 

* On the passage, some of the Indians, for " showing their resent- 
ment by unbraiding the authors of their misery," were thrown into the 
sea. Ibid., p. 80. 

5 Marbois, op. cit., p. 119, and appendix, No. 4. 



32 1 ] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE FRENCH 6 9 

The Natchez war was the most important of those be- 
tween French and Indians in Louisiana. There were, how- 
ever, minor difficulties, from time to time, in which the 
same policy of enslaving the captive Indians was followed 
by the French. The war with the Fox Indians, 1712, serves 
as an example of these lesser troubles. 1 By 1720, war had 
broken out between the French and the Chickasaw, whom 
the English had stirred up. 2 An intermittent warfare with 
this tribe and others continued in 1724, 3 1728, 4 1736 r> (with 
a peace in 1740), 6 1750/ and 1752. 8 Captives were en- 
slaved by both sides. Some of these were left with the 
Indians to dispose of at will. Others were kept among 
the French as slaves. 9 

During the period of colonial history, each European 
nation was in alliance, from time to time, with various 
Indian tribes. In time of war with other tribes, the allied 
Indians took an active part, and not infrequently they were 
urged on to hostilities by their white friends for various 
reasons. One of these reasons was to obtain war captives 
to give to the whites for slaves. In 1698, Tonti had en- 
couraged the Illinois, who were in alliance with the French, 
to capture and enslave the Iroquois Indians and so break 

1 Ferland, Cours d'Histoire du Canada, seconde partie, p. 446. 

* Landun, Journal d'un Voyage a la Louisiane fait en 1720, p. 247; 
Margry, op. cit., vi, p. 316; La Harpe's Journal in French, op. cit., p. 351. 

8 Martin, The History of Louisiana from the Earliest Period, i. p. 
256. 

4 Ibid., i, p. 256. 

6 Dubroca, L'ltineraire dcs Francois dans la Louisiane, p. 81. 

6 Thomas, The Indians of North America, etc., p. 319; Cramoisy, 
Journal de la Guerre du Micissippi contre les Chicachas, p. 65. 

1 Cramoisy, op. cit., p. 65. 

8 Gayarre, Louisiana, its History as a French Colony, p. 64. 

9 Cramoisy, op. cit., pp. 49, 65. 67, 68. 89 ; Margry, op. cit., v, p. 432. 



j INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [322 

their power. 1 La Salle favored the same course. 2 In 170S, 
the Canadian French were exciting the Indians about Kas- 
kaskia to wage war with each other, and were on the spot 
to get slaves to sell to the English. 3 The Marquis de Vau- 
dreuil, governor-general of Canada, in 1706 demanded of 
the Ottawa of Detroit certain captives as slaves for the 
allied Sonnontouan to replace their men slain by the 
Ottawa, 4 and others to be slaves to the French, in return 
for a missionary and a French deserter they had killed/' 
The slaves were duly presented in 1707. 6 The demands of 
the governor-general were part of a military plan to form 
an alliance of the western tribes with the French, and 
continued the Indian custom of giving slaves to make repa- 
ration for injuries committed or for foes slain. 7 Thus the 
allied Indians were satisfied, and a token of subjection was 
obtained from the Ottawa. 8 As late as 1723, de Vaudreuil 
was accused of urging on the Abnaki against the Illinois to 
get slaves for him. 6 Apparently, such action was as agree- 
able to the Indians as to the French. An Indian orator of 
the Arkansas tribe, in his address given in honor of Bossu's 
arrival in 1762, said: " We warriors will strike the common 
enemy to get prisoners which shall serve as slaves." 10 

Sometimes the French went still further, and demanded 
that conquered tribes make war on other tribes in order to 

1 Margry, op. cit., iii, p. 564. 

3 French, op. cit., pt. i, p. 42. 

1 Margry, op. cit., v, p. 476; French, op. cit., new series, i, p. 100. 
Hennep : n, A New Discovery, etc., p. 631, mentions the French of 
Kaskaskia using both Indian and negro slaves. 

4 Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society Collections, xxxiii, p. 286. 

6 Ibid., pp. 324, 397. 6 Ibid., pp. 328, 439. 544- 

7 Ibid., p. 550. 8 Ibid., pp. 365, 396. 

9 Wisconsin Historical Society Collections, xvi, pp. 434, 436. 

10 Bossu, Nonveaux Voyages dans I'Amcrique Septentrionale, p. 100. 



323] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE FRENCH 7 1 

get captives for them to take the place of Frenchmen killed 
during the war. Such a condition Sieur de Louvigny 
placed on the conquered Fox Indians in 1716. 1 

As already observed, kidnapping was the means earliest 
adopted by all the European nations for taking Indians as 
slaves. In 1524, accordingly, Verrazano attempted to cap- 
ture an Indian family consisting of an old woman, a young 
girl and six children, on the northeast coast of North 
America. But the girl proved so intractable that the sol- 
diers were forced to give up the attempt to take the whole 
family to the ship, and finally carried away but one small 
boy who was too young to make any resistance. 2 The pur- 
pose of Verrazano's expedition was to obtain for France a 
place in the discoveries in which the rival powers, Spain, 
Portugal and England were engaged. Some proof that the 
expedition reached the New World was desirable. A native 
would furnish it. 

In Carrier's first expedition, 1534, he seized some of the 
natives and carried them on board his ships. The relations 
with the Indians were so friendly that he was able, by gifts 
and explanations, to persuade them that he meant no harm. 
Two of them were finally detained on board and carried to 
France. 3 On the second expedition, in 1535, Cartier, reply- 
ing to the request of the chief, Taiguragui, that the French 

1 Wisconsin Historical Society Collections, xvi, p. 343. 

* Kohl, Documentary History of Maine, i, p. 255. Verrazano says of 
the Indians of this region : " They are suspicious, hostile and desirous 
of obtaining steel implements for defense against kidnappers, who fre- 
quent the coast to seize and transport them to the Spanish Islands of 
the West Indies." 

* Hakluyt, Voyages, iii, pp. 209, 213; Lescarbot, Histoire de la Nou- 
velle-France, ii, p. 350; Kohl, Documentary History of Maine, i, pp. 
327, 330; Douglas, Old France in the New World, pp. 22, 23, 27, 28, 30; 
Robinson, An Account of Discoveries, etc., p. 359. Early English and 
French Voyages, chiefly from Hakluyt, 1534-1608, in Original Narra- 
tives of Early American History, p. 81. 



- 2 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [324 

carry away another chief, Agona, declared that the king of 
France had forbidden him to bring back either man or wo- 
man, and permitted him to bring to France only two or three 
little boys to learn the language. 1 But these pretended in- 
structions did not prevent Cartier from seizing Taiguragui 
and other chiefs for the purpose of carrying them to France. 
On the outcry of the Indians against such an act, he prom- 
ised that the chiefs should be well treated, and that after 
visiting France for the purpose of telling the king about 
the land of Saguenay, they should be returned to their own 
country within the space of twelve months. 2 

On his setting out for the New World in 1562, the queen 
cf France commanded Ribaut to bring back some of the 
natives. 3 In obedience to her command, Ribaut attempted 
to detain two of the natives on board ship to carry them to 
France, but the savages managed to escape and swam to 
shore. 4 

1 Lescarbot, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France, ii, p. 364; Douglas, op. 
cit, pp. 39, 40, 42. 

1 Lescarbot, op. cit., ii, pp. 363-367 ; Kohl, Documentary History of 
Maine, i, p. 336; Douglas, op. cit., p. 37; Robinson, op cit., p. 369. 
Early English and French Voyages, chiefly from Hakluyt, 1534-1608, 
in Original Narratives of Early American History, p. 81. The prom- 
ise of Cartier that the prisoners should be well treated was evidently 
kept. In the archives of St. Malo for the year 1538, is noted the bap- 
tism of three savages brought there by Cartier. Winsor, Narrative 
and Critical History of America, iv, p. 57. These Indians were ques- 
tioned by Francis I, (Thevet, Cosmographie Universelle, Tome II, p. 
1013), and thus served the purpose for which they had been brought. 
They never returned to America, for all of them, except one little 
girl, died in Brittany before Cartier's third voyage in 1540. Kohl, 
Documentary History of Maine, i, p. 342; Robinson, op. cit., p. 406. 

5 Hakluyt, op. cit., iii, pp. 303-319; Lescarbot, op. cit., i, p. 44; Narra- 
tive of Jean Ribaut's Whole and True Discovery of Terra Florida, 
reprin'.ed in Courtnay, The Genesis of South Carolina, p. xxiv. 

* Hakluyt, op. cit., iii, p. 320, says, "by permission of the king"; 
Robinson, op. cit., p. 431. 



325] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE FRENCH 73 

Some of the Indians kidnapped by the explorers men- 
tioned were slaves only in a modified sense. They were 
not put to servile labor, yet they were deprived of their 
liberty and were at the disposal of their captors. Some 
were held as objects of curiosity. Others were taken for a 
definite purpose: to furnish information regarding their 
native country, and to serve as interpreters in later expedi- 
tions. For such a reason La Harpe, in 1719, in his jour- 
ney in the southwest, when returning to the coast, resolved 
to capture some of the Indians, hoping that by good treat- 
ment he might induce them to allow him to settle in their 
country and to carry out his plans. Under the pretence of 
landing to obtain water for his ships, he seized a dozen or 
more, and sailed for Mobile. 1 

The Indians soon became suspicious of the explorers and 
traders, especially in the sections where more than one of 
the rival races carried on exploration and trade. Such a 
state of affairs Du Tisne found in 17 19, when he was badly 
received by the Pawnee whom the Osage had told that his 
purpose was to entrap Indians for slaves. 2 

The great purpose of the French in the new world was 
trade. Their expeditions, excluding those of the mission- 
aries, were commercial in nature. With them gold hunt- 
ing was not a primary consideration, as was the case with 
the Spaniards, and that for the simple reason that no gold 
could be found. Nor were they seeking a refuge from per- 
secution like the English. The great fur trade was being 

1 French, op. cit., p. 74; Margry, op. cit., vi, pp. 282, 370, 371. An 
instance of kidnapping Indians in Canada by military officials is worthy 
of mention. In 1687, a number of Iroquois chiefs went to a French 
camp near Montreal, on the invitation of the French officials, to con- 
fer with ihe governor of Canada. The intendant, Champigny, had 
these chiefs seized and by the king's orders sent to France to serve 
in the galleys. Brodhead, History of New York, first edition, ii, p. 476. 

* Margry, op. cit., vi, p. 314. 



74 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [326 

developed by them. This trade was carried on with the 
Indians, and in all sections where captives in war or kid- 
napped Indians were purchased from the natives, such pur- 
chase was usually a part of the trade in furs. 

The custom of purchasing Indians originated with the 
early explorers and discoverers. Sometimes such a pur- 
chase was made for a purely commercial reason : to obtain 
a slave to perform some certain labor. At other times the 
buyer was moved by an humanitarian motive : to save an 
Indian from torture or death at the hands of his captors. 
The purchased Indian might then be allowed to return to 
his own tribe and be retained as a slave at the will of his 
new master. In 1678, Du Lhut, when setting out from 
Montreal on his travels westward, bought an Indian to act 
as a guide. 1 Du Tisne, in 1719, similarly acquired some 
slaves from a chief at Natchitoches. 2 In 1724, de Bourgmont 
purchased a considerable number of slaves from the Kansas 
tribe. Mention is made of fifteen at one time, six at an- 
other. 3 For these he was forced to pay double price, as 
the Indians stated that the year before, a Frenchman had 
given such a price to a party of Illinois who were with 
them. 4 Sometimes the slaves obtained by these explorers 
and traders were used in their own expeditions. At other 
times, they were sent back to the settlement along with other 
merchandise. De Bourgmont sent some of those whom he 
purchased back to New Orleans. La Verendrye, also, in 
1 73 1, sent back slaves to the French settlements, and in 
writing of his action implied that he thought he deserved 
much credit for furnishing the colonists with slaves. 5 

Until well into the latter half of the eighteenth century 

1 Margry, op. cit., vi, p. 29. 

1 Ibid., vi, p. 315. s Ibid., vi, p. 406. 

4 Ibid., vi, p. 410. i Ibid., vi, p. 593. 



327] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE FRENCH 75 

Indian slaves were held by the settlers of Detroit, who ob- 
tained them in trade with friendly Indians who in turn 
took them in war with the Pawnee, Osage, Choctaw and 
other western tribes. 1 In 1741, the so-called " Nation of 
the Serpent " entirely destroyed seventeen villages, killed 
all the men and older women, made slaves of the young 
women, and traded them for horses and other mer- 
chandise. 2 A report to the home government in 1720, 
concerning Natchitoches, declared that the most extensive 
commerce which could be carried on with the Indians of 
that section, would be in slaves, horses, skins, etc. 3 An- 
other report sent by La Salle told of the Alabama Indians 
bringing twenty-seven or twenty-eight Mobile Indian wo- 
men and children into the colony, and disposing of them 
to the French. 4 

The friendly and allied Indians appreciated the results 
to be obtained from the sale of their captives to the whites, 
and not only sold them to the "cOureurs de bois " and 
other traveling traders, but took them directly to the French 
settlement for sale, as is shown in the preceding paragraph. 
Apparently all the leading French settlements afforded a 
ready market for such slaves. Mobile furnishes a case in 
point. In November, 1706, a party of Ouacha arrived in 
the settlement bringing some Abnaki captives for sale. 5 In 
the same month, also, some Choctaw brought to the settle- 
ment Cahouita and Altamaha captives for the same pur- 
pose. 6 

1 Farmer, The History of Detroit and Michigan, p. 344. 

' Margry, op. cit., vi, p. 601. 

3 Ibid., iv, p. 230; Mississippi Provincial Archives, French Domina- 
tion, Correspondance Gencrale, ix, 1720-1722, p. 111; Archives du 
Ministre des Colonies, C. 13, vi, p. 50. 

* Archives du Mi?iistre des Colonies, C. 13, 1707-1712, p. 398. 

& French, op. cit.. pt. iii, p. 36. 6 Ibid., pt. iii. p. 36. 



76 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [328 

It was the Jesuit and French missionaries who first ad- 
vocated the purchase of Indian captives hy the traders, in 
order to prevent their being put to death. By putting them 
in a mild condition of servitude they hoped to place them 
in a position where they would be Christianized. 1 Both 
Tonti 2 and La Salle 3 advised such a course of action. 

The colonists favored the same action for a more com- 
mercial reason. The French of Kaskaskia, in 1708, were 
urging the allied Indians to war, and were on the spot to ob- 
tain captives to sell as slaves to the English. 4 De Vaudreuil. 
governor-general of Canada, throughout the first quarter 
of the eighteenth century was urging the Abnaki to wage 
war on the Illinois to obtain slaves for him. 5 

An important factor in the French colonial trade was 
the " coureurs de bois." These men, having cut loose from 
civilization, wandered at will among the Indians, trading 
for the various commodities which they could dispose of 
in the settlements of either the French or English colonies. 
One of these commodities was Indian slaves, obtained for 
the most part from the tribes who had captured them in war. 
Judging from the number of these white men of the woods, 
their unrestrained life, and the evidence given by the men 
of the time, it seems not unlikely that this feature of colonial 
trade produced a considerable portion of the Indian slaves 

1 Carver, Travels through the Interior Parts of North America, etc., 
P- 346. 

* Margry, op. cit., Hi, p. 564. 

'French, op. cit., pt. i, p. 42; A Memoir of La Salle to Frontenac, 
November 9, 1680, states: "The young bisons are easily tamed, and 
may be of great help, as well as the slaves in which the natives are 
accustomed to trade." Historical Magazine, v, p. 197. 

4 Margry, op. cit., v, p. 476; French, op. cit., new series, i, p. 100; 
Hennepin, A New Discovery, etc., p. 631, mentions the French of 
Kaskaskia using both negro and Indian slaves. 

s Wisconsin Historical Society Collections, xvi, pp. 434, 436. 



329] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE FRENCH yy 

used by the French. 1 If the " coureurs de bois " did not 
find a sufficient number of slaves among the tribes they 
visited, they not infrequently stirred up the tribes to war, 
so that they might obtain the captives for sale. On July 
25, 1707, La Salle wrote from Fort Louis to the Minister 
of Marine that the " coureurs de bois " from Canada were 
thus stirring up the Indian tribes against each other, in or- 
der to obtain Indian slaves to sell in Louisiana. 2 The work 
of the " coureurs de bois " was, however, by no means 
limited to Louisiana, but extended over all the area claimed 
by the French. The desire of the English for Indian slaves 
afforded an opportunity for profit that could not be rejected. 
They always found a ready market for their Indian slaves 
with the English of the Carolina country. The control of 
the French officials over this wandering class was always 
slight, and since there was practically no export trade in In- 
dians to be had in Louisiana, and since all the Indians 
whom they obtained could not be disposed of in the colony, 
they turned to the English colonies for the purpose. 

Some effort was made by the French officials to prevent 
this trade, but the attempt met with indifferent success. It 
was not the traffic in human beings which disturbed 
them, but the fact that their enemy, the English, 
were profiting by the transaction. In 17 14, a report of 

1 Savc'le reported from Ft. Biloxi, August 4. 1701, that he possessed 
some slaves from the territory to the west and one Illinois slave, who 
was probably a runaway, and then adds that the French " voyageurs " 
would not miss this one runaway since they had so many. Mississippi 
Provincial Archives, French Domination, Correspondance Genirale, 
1678-1701, i, p. 152; Archives Nationales, Colonies, C. 13, Louisiane, 
Correspondance Generate, 1678-1708, i, p. 315. 

2 Archives Nationales, Colonies, C. 12, second series, Carton I — 
Louisiane, Correspondance Generate, 1699-1773. (Transcript in Mr. 
Peter J. Hamilton's library) ; Charlevoix, History and General Descrip- 
tion of Nezv France, (Shea's Translation), vi, p. t,2- 



7,8 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [330 

Cadillac to the home government lamented both his inabil- 
ity to restrain the French allied Indians from trading with 
the English in slaves and other commodities, and also his 
embarrassment at not being able to prevent the French 
colonists from trading with the English in skins and Indian 
slaves. 1 Such opposition, however, was not general among 
the French colonial officials. Some of the most prominent 
ones were engaged in this same slave trade with the English, 
even when appearing to be opposed to it. In 1708. Bien- 
ville ordered the Canadian French to cease exciting the In- 
dians of Kaskaskia to wage war on each other to obtain 
slaves for them. 2 Yet, in the same year, he proposed, since 
the French would not cultivate the land, to obtain the need- 
ful supply of labor by seizing Indians and sending them to 
the West Indies in exchange for negroes. 3 And in his re- 
port to the home government mentioned above, Cadillac 
complained of the selling of Indian slaves to the English by 
Bienville. 4 Such transactions by the French officials were 
carried on secretly. The Sieur de Ste. Heleine, nephew of 
Bienville, was killed by the English allied Indians while on 
such an expedition to sell Indians to the English of Caro- 
lina. 3 

Some opposition to the trade was shown by the Jesuits, 
since the hoped for result of having numbers of slaves to 
convert, if purchased by the French, did not materialize. 

1 Mississippi Provincial Archives, French Domination, Correspond- 
ance Generale, 1713-1714, iv; Archives du Ministre des Colonies, C. 13, 
17101712, iii. 

3 Margry, op. cit., v, p. 476 ; French, op. cit., new series, i, p. 100. 

8 Kings ford, The History of Canada, iii, p. 226. 

* Ibid. 

5 Mississippi Provincial Archives, French Domination, Correspond- 
ence Generale, 1716, vii, p. 23; Archives du Ministre des Colonies, C. 
13, iv, p. 248. 



33 1 ] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE FRENCH 7o< 

Accordingly, in 1693, they petitioned the governor of 
Canada to prohibit the trade in Indian slaves. The request 
was granted and an order issued to that effect, but without 
definite result. The " coureurs de bois " continued the 
trade in spite of the penalty of fine and imprisonment. 1 

Certain of the Indians possessed by the explorers were 
gifts from Indian chiefs. On his second voyage, in 1535, 
the chiefs of the Saguenay River country gave Cartier three 
children. 2 Afterwards, owing to mutual suspicions on the 
part of the French and Indians, one of these children made 
her escape. 3 On the resumption of good feeling, the In- 
dians promised to return her. Later, another chief offered 
Cartier two children, one of whom was accepted. 4 

In 1564, Laudonniere led an expedition to the region of 
Florida. Desiring to penetrate into the interior and realiz- 
ing that the friendship of the Indians was necessary for 
such an attempt, he sought to obtain from an Indian chief 
two of his prisoners, whom he proposed to use in winning 
the friendship of another chief by presenting them to him. 5 
At first, the chief declined to give away the prisoners ; but, 
upon Laudonniere's renewing his request, the chief yielded, 
the prisoners were produced, and were taken back by the 
French to Fort Carolina. 6 

Champlain desired to send to France some girls to have 

1 Carver, Travels through the Interior Parts of North America, etc., 
P- 347- 

3 Robinson, An Account of Discoveries in the West until 1519, etc., 
p. 369 ; Early English and French Voyages, chiefly from Hakluyt, 1534- 
1608, in Original Narratives of Early American History, p. 50. 

• Lescarbot, op. cit., ii, p. 352. 

* Robinson, op. cit., p. 369; Early English and French Voyages, chiefly 
from Hakluyt, 1534-1608, in Original Narratives of Early American 
History, p. 55. 

5 Lescarbot, op. cit., i, p. 71 ; Hakluyt, op. cit., iii, pp. 3 x 9-349- 

6 Lescarbot, op. cit., i, p. 74; Hakluyt, op. cit., iii, p. 396. 



go INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [332 

them " instructed in the law of God and good manners." 
An opportunity to satisfy this desire came with the wish 
of the Montagnais to present something to the French 
traveler. Three girls were given him, whom he named 
Faith, Hope and Charity, and whom he had instructed in 
religion, domestic work, etc. 1 Still other Indians were 
taken to France by the expedition. One of the sagamores 
of the Montagnais gave his son to M. du Pont for that 
purpose. Still another savage, an Iroquois woman, the 
Frenchman begged of the tribe which was about to eat her. 2 
Other and similar instances of obtaining Indians are re- 
corded for the same general humanitarian and religious 
purpose.'" 

The Illinois gave Marquette and Jolliet an Indian slave 
boy, whom Jolliet took with him when going to Quebec, 
and who was drowned on the journey. 4 The Ottawa gave 
Marquette a young man/' and a Kishkakon chief gave 
him " a little slave he had brought from the Illinois a 

1 Sagard-Theodat, Histoire du Canada el I 'oyages, etc., new edition, 
iv, p. 829; Le Clercq, The First Establishment of the Faith in New 
France, Shea's translation, i, p. 283; Douglas, op. cit., pp. 181, 195; 
Laverdiere, Oeuvres de Champlain, seconde edition, vi, pp. 154-158. 

1 Purchas His Pilgrimes, xviii, p. 225; Bourne, The Voyages and 
Explorations of Samuel de Champlain, etc., i, p. 229. 

* Bourne, op. cit., i, pp. 226, 229; Laverd'ere, op. cit., seconde edition, 
vi, pp. 154-158; Marshall, Historical Writings Relating to the Early 
History of the West, p. 22. It will be seen that these Indians were 
not considered as slaves by Champlain. They were to be educated 
and trained in religious duties for their own good, for that of the faith 
and the future good of the French. Yet they illustrate the readiness 
with which the Indians parted with members of their own tribe, as 
well as with those whom they held captive. 

4 Shea, Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi I 'alley, pp. 
xxxii, 23; Jesuit Relations, lix, p. 121 ; French, op. cit., pt. iv, p. xxxii. 

5 Shea, Discovery and Exploration of the .\fississippi Valley, p. Iv. 



333] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE FRENCH 8 1 

few months before." 1 In the same manner, Indians were 
given to La Salle and to his companion, Tonti, on their 
expeditions. 2 In 1699, Father Anastasius accepted from 
the Indians the gift of an Indian girl as a slave. 3 In 1703, 
M. de Saint Cosine, a missionary priest traveling from 
Canada to Natchez, possessed in his party a young Indian 
slave boy. 4 

When Du Lhut was in Montreal in 1678, the savages 
gave him three slaves. 5 At another time, 1684, the Indians 
wished to give him some slaves as an atonement for their 
having murdered some Frenchmen. 6 In 1700, the " Man- 
tantons " (Mdewakanton), at a feast in his honor, pre- 
sented Le Sueur, among other gifts, with an Indian slave. 7 
In 1 719, La Harpe, on his journey northwest from Natchi- 
toches, was given a young Kansas slave by the chiefs of sev- 
eral nations gathered together. One of the chiefs ex- 
pressed his sorrow that he had but one slave to give, and 
La Harpe. in his letter to Terrisse, regrets that he did not 
arrive sooner, and by receiving them as slaves, prevent the 
seventeen companions of his slave from being eaten. 8 

The Indians realized that the trade in captive slaves was 
profitable. When, in 1724, the Kansas tribe charged 
de Bourgmont double price for slaves sold him, they 
feared that he would be angry at the price asked, and that 

1 French, op. cit., pt. iv, p. li. 

2 Ibid., pt. iv, p. 169; pt. i, pp. 71, 72, 74; Margry, op. cit., ii, p. 98; 
Joutel, Journal of La Salle's Last Voyage, p. 118. 

s French, op. cit., series 2, p. 100. 

4 Ibid., new series, p. 84 ; Margry, op. cit., v, p. 433. 

5 Margry, op. cit., vi, p. 21. 

6 Ibid., vi, pp. 47, 48. 

7 Wisconsin Historical Society Collections, xvi, p. 192. 

8 French, op. cit., p. 74 ; Margry, op. cit., vi, pp. 282, 370, 37 



g 2 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [334 

in consequence they would lose future trade. So they pre- 
sented him with five slaves as a gift. 1 

Throughout history the children of slave mothers have 
generally been considered slaves. A report on the condi- 
tion of Louisiana, 1716, declared that the inhabitants were 
accustomed to sell the children of their Indian female 
slaves. 2 Later, in 1724, a royal decree provided that chil- 
dren born of marriages between slaves should be slaves, 
and should belong to the masters of their mothers, and not 
to the masters of their fathers, if father and mother should 
belong to different masters. 3 

The uses to which Indian slaves were put, either in early 
or later colonial times, were determined by economic con- 
ditions. Among the explorers, the need for guides and 
interpreters was imperative, and one finds the French, like 
the Spanish, using Indian slaves for this purpose. On his 
second expedition, Cartier made such use of the Indian 
children whom he carried to France on his first expedition. 4 
Laudonniere, in 1564, intended to use slaves for this pur- 
pose. 5 Du Lhut purchased a slave to act as guide. The 
Mallet expedition, in 1739, used a slave as guide. 7 One of 
the slaves purchased by de Bourgmont on his expedition in 
1724, was retained with the expedition as interpreter, and 
was taught French by de Bourgmont himself. 8 Doubtless 

1 Margry, op. cit., vi, p. 407. 

1 Mississippi Provincial Archives, French Domination, Correspond- 
ence Generate, 1716, vi, p. 355. 

3 Le Code Noir, Article IX. 

4 Rob'nson, op. cit., p. 363. 

6 Lescarbot, op. cit., i, p. 74. 

6 Margry, op. cit., vi. p. 21. 

7 Ibid., vi, p. 458. 

8 Ibid., vi, p. 417. 



335] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE FRENCH 83 

the instances might be multiplied if the records were com- 
plete, though it is not likely that enslaved Indians were 
used for this purpose to the same extent as the friendly 
allied or converted Indians. 1 

The French never sent out any great expeditions like 
those of the Spaniards. Hence among the explorers the 
use of slaves as domestics was limited. Among the colon- 
ists, one finds Le Page du Pratz, on his arrival in Louisiana, 
buying an Indian woman to act as cook and interpreter. 2 
The early Louisiana colonists experienced the need for ser- 
vants, and, May 26, 1700, expressed the hope that the In- 
dians would supply such need. 3 The life of the Illinois 
colonist was less luxurious than that of the inhabitant of 
Louisiana; in consequence, the need of slaves in household 
service was less. 

Early in the eighteenth century life among the French 
of Louisiana, both rich and poor, was quite licentious, 4 and 
one of the means of fostering this life was the use of In- 
dian women, slave and free. The demoralization result- 
ing from such a condition attracted attention, and in 1709 
it was urged that girls suitable for wives be sent over in 
order " to prevent these disorders and debaucheries." 5 

Agricultural pursuits appear to have been the chief labor 
to which the French put Indian slaves. Such pursuits, 
along with trading, formed the chief industry of the 

1 As in the case of the Spaniards, not all the Indians who accom- 
panied the French exploring parties were slaves. Many of them were 
hired. Others were sent by their chiefs. Some went voluntarily. 

1 Le Page du Pratz, The History of Louisiana, etc., p. 20. 

3 Correspondance Generate, 1678-1706. Tome 2, p. 328. A memoir in 
the possession of the Louisiana Historical Society. 

4 The Present State of the Country and Inhabitants, European and 
Indians of Louisiana on the North Continent of America, p. 12. 

5 Archives du Minis tre des Colonies, C. 13, 1 707-1 712. p. 398. 



g 4 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [336 

colonies. 1 But it was the general tendency of the French 
to prefer the novelty and excitement of the trader's life, 
rather than the more quiet existence of the agriculturalist. 
Bienville complained much of this state of affairs, and 
sought to remedy it. 2 The consequence of this tendency 
was to make the price of labor high, 3 and the use of Indian 
slaves was a means at hand to solve the difficulty. In the 
simpler life of the inhabitants of the Illinois country, agri- 
culture was the chief industry of the settlers until the close 
of the period under discussion. 4 And the farmers increased 
the results of their industry by the extensive use of Indian 
slaves. 5 

Throughout the French territory in the military stations, 
both soldiers and frontiersmen found use for their Indian 
women slaves as cooks and in performing the other do- 
mestic labors of fort and camp. 6 The male slaves were 
used in erecting fortifications, performing other heavy 
labor, and as guides in military expeditions. 7 

The custom of using Indian slaves as a bribe or reward 
was common. In either case the purpose of the whites 

1 Pittman, The Present State of the European Settlements on the 
Mississippi, etc., Hodder edition, p. 102; Hamilton, Co'onial Mobile, p. 
67; Monette, History of the Discovery and Settlement of the VaVey 
of the Mississippi, i, p. 192; Gayarre, History of Louisiana, French 
Domination, i, p. 242; Thwaites, Early Western Travels, xxvii, p. 55; 
Jesuit Relations, lxix, p. 145; Martin, History of Louisiana, i, p. 173. 

2 Guenin, La Louisiane, p. 297. 

s Pittman, op. cit., Hodder edition, p. 102. 

4 Jesuit Relations, lxix, p. 145. 

5 Wisconsin Historical Society Collections, xvi, p. 332. 

6 Mississippi Provincial Archives, French Domination, Correspond- 
ance Generate, iv, 1713-1714, p. 14; Notes et Documents Historiques 
de la Louisiane, p. 29. 

T Bossu, op. cit., p. 114; Margry, op. cit., i, p. 112. 



337] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE FRENCH 85 

was the same : to procure the friendship and alliance of the 
tribes. In the northwest the French demanded that cer- 
tain subdued tribes bring them Indian slaves, which they 
might use to replace the members of the allied tribes whom 
the conquered tribes had killed during the war. 1 In the 
area where the claims of the European nations overlapped, 
alliance of the tribes was especially desired by each nation. 
These Indian captive slaves or slaves purchased from other 
tribes were often returned to their own tribes as a peace 
offering or as a token of friendship. Thus the alliance 
of the tribes was won, and a barrier created against the 
encroachments of the Spanish and the English. 2 Such use 

1 Wisconsin Historical Society Collections, xvi, pp. 378, 379, 454. 

2 Margry, op. cit., ii, p. 293. The only instance in wh ch a home gov- 
ernment demanded that Indians be sent to Europe to perform ac ual 
labor as slaves, exists in the case of the French. On July 31, 1684, 
Louis XIV ordered de la Barre to send all Iroquois prisoners to 
France to serve in the galleys, because, said the letters royal, " these 
savages are strong and robust." Brodhead, History of New York, first 
edition, ii, p. 476. De la Barre made an expedition against the 
Iroquois, but was unsuccessful. In 1687, Denonville, the succeeding 
governor-general, led another expedition against the Iroquois who had 
been especially arrogant toward the French since the repulse of de la 
Barre. Before the expedition had set out from Fort Frontenac, an- 
other dispatch from the king had arrived. This repeated his former 
orders to send ihe Iroquois prisoners to France to serve in the galleys. 
Denonville obeyed the command. Brodhead, op. cit., ii, p. 507. The 
order was repeated March, 1688, declaring " It is certain that those 
Indians, who are vigorous and accustomed to hardship, can serve 
usefully on board his Majesty's galleys," Brodhead, op-, cit., ii, p. 546. 
Continued difficulties with the Indians led Denonville, among other 
concessions and attempts at conciliation, to write to France, asking 
that as many of the Indian galley slaves as survived should be returned 
to Canada, and suggesting that, to produce as good an effect as pos- 
sible, they be decently clothed. The request was complied with. 
Marshall, Historical Writings relating to the ear'y History of the 
West, p. 159; De Brumath, Bishop Laval, pp. 214, 215, 216. For a 
description of the French galleys of the time, see Clement, Vie de 
Colbert, p. 456. 



86 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [338 

was made of slaves by de Bourgmont, in 1724, in the Kan- 
sas country. With a messenger sent from there to the 
Comanche, he sent also two Comanche slaves whom he pur- 
chased from the Kansas in order that his messenger be well 
received. 1 He also purchased some Padouca slaves in 
order to return them to their people. 2 

In 1728, the king of France issued an edict regarding cer- 
tain concessions of land, and required a tax of five livres 
on each slave, the proceeds of which were to be used in 
building churches and hospitals. 3 Thus the Indian slaves, 
along with the negroes, served as a property basis in this 
one instance, as they did many times in the English colonies 
They were also regarded as property in all legal and busi- 
ness transactions and were classed along with negroes, do- 
mestic animals and real estate, which could be sold to satisfy 
their owners' debts. 4 

The early slavery among the French was mild in nature. 5 
The system was of a patriarchal type. The Indian slaves 
often worked along with their owners, especially those en- 
gaged in agricultural labor, and were treated as children 
who must be guided, directed, punished or rewarded by 
their superiors. Cramoisy, writing of Bienville's expedi- 
tion of 1737, states that a Chickasaw slave who acted as 
guide, had belonged to his owner five years and was always 
treated as one of the family. 6 A French settler in the Fox 

1 Parkman, A Half-Century of Conflict, ii, p. 17. 

* Margry, op. cit., vi, p. 402. 

* Arkansas Historical Society Publications, ii, p. 342. 

* Hamilton, Slavery in Canada, in Transactions of the Canadian In- 
stitute, 1890, i, p. 103. 

D See Hinsdale, The Old Northwest, etc., revised edition, p. 347; 
Monette, op. cit., pp. 100-200; Wisconsin Historical Society Collections. 
1856, iii, pp. 256 et seq. 

6 Cramoisy, Journal de la Guerre du Micissippi contre les Chicachas, 
P- S3- 



339 J ENSLAVEMENT BY THE FRENCH 87 

Valley is spoken of as living with his Pawnee slaves in 
feudal style. 1 

The relation of the French and the Indians, bond or free, 
was always different from that existing between the Eng- 
lish and the Indians. The Frenchman never looked upon 
the Indians with the disdain and contempt for an inferior 
race which was displayed by the English. Marriage be- 
tween French and Indians was common. The social re- 
sult of this close connection was more pronounced in case 
of the Frenchman than in that of the Indian. It meant 
the " Indianizing " of the Frenchman, or the bringing him 
to the social level and to the life and habits of the red man. 
The most striking result of this tendency was supplied by 
the " coureur de bois;" but the same result was apparent 
even in the case of the superior colonists of lower Louisi- 
ana. And to this result the Indian slave contributed in a 
measure. The lack of social distinction between French- 
man and native tended toward kind treatment on the part 
of the owner, and to a shifting of the social planes of mas- 
ter and slave toward that of equality. Yet instances of 
cruelty to slaves are not lacking. The punishments of the 
age were cruel, whether the offender was bond or free. 2 

It has been said that the dominating feature of French 
colonial life was trade. But religious and commercial ad- 
vancement went hand in hand. From the earliest arrival 
of the French, the missionary labors of the Church ex- 
tended not only to the Indian tribes, but also to the negro 
and Indian slaves held by the colonists. The conversion 
of the Indian was an asset for the growth of trade. French 

1 Wisconsin Historical Society Proceedings, xlvi, p. 141. 

* Bienville ordered one of the Indian prisoners, who had assisted in 
the murder of St. Cosme, to be placed on a wooden horse, and his 
brains to be beaten out with a club. His scalp was then cut off, 
and his body thrown into the river. 



88 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [340 

commissions, as well as Spanish, provided for the conver- 
sion of the Indians. 1 Priest and friar were everywhere 
present. Each Christianized Indian slave marked a gain in 
the advancement of the faith, and made possible a readier 
access to trade with the convert's tribe and those of his 
friends. 2 But the religious training and teaching of slaves 
were not entirely a matter of policy. It was rather a part 
of the generally kind treatment of the master. The rites 
of the Church were commonly accorded them. The Louis- 
iana church records certain accounts of the birth, baptism, 
marriage and burial of Indian slaves. 3 The Mobile and 
New Orleans registers are similar to the church registers 
to be found throughout Lower Canada wherever a church 
was established. The parish registers of Levis, Quebec and 
Long Point are cases in point. Throughout the first and 
part of the second half of the eighteenth century, these 
registers show that Indian slaves, many of whom, in Quebec 
for instance, were brought from Louisiana, were baptized, 

1 Parkman, The Pioneers of France in the New World, pp. 217, 244. 

1 Lescarbot, op. cit., iii, p. 612 ; Parkman, The Pioneers of France in 
the New World, p. 279; Marshall, op. cit., p. 127. 

3 The following records are from a transcript in the library of 
Tulane University. 

1724, Feb. 4, est ne un fils d'une esclave Indienne appt — le pere est 
inconnu. (p. 26). 

1724, May 2 — autre fois esclave de la nation des Panis marie avec 
Francarte de la nation de Chat — (p. 33). 

1728, Sept. 13 — ai inhume dans la cimetiere de cette paroisse — le 
corps de sauvagesse apport a — (p. 280). 

1729, Feb. 26 — ai baptise — sauvage appt. a M. Roquet, (p. 371). 
1729, June 20 — ai baptise — sauvage appt. a M. Villevalle (p. 389). 
J 730, Janvier 30 — ai inhume dans la cimetiere de cette paroisse avec 

les ceremonies ordinaires de l'eglise, le corps de Jean Baptise, sauvage. 
age de deux ans, appt. a M. de Ste. Cheuse (p. 424). 

au fay de quoy j'ai signe, 

Fr. Hyacueltre. 



341 ] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE FRENCH 89 

and then records kept of such baptisms as in the case of the 
whites. 1 The church records of Kaskaskia 2 and Vin- 
cennes 3 make frequent mention of the birth, baptism and 
death of Indian slaves (called Panis) down to the time of 
British occupation ; but from that time they became more 
and more infrequent as Indian slavery gradually gave way 
to negro slavery. The baptismal register of Mobile, Ala- 
bama, dating from 1704 to 1740, contains baptismal records 
of whites, blacks and Indians. From the register it ap- 
pears that witnesses to the baptism of a slave were not con- 
sidered necessary, though sometimes used. In some in- 
stances the person baptized is recorded as the slave of a 
certain person. In other cases he is mentioned as a slave, 
and the owner's name is not given. The earliest baptism of 
an Indian slave in this record is that of a fifteen-year-old 
slave of Iberville. Baptisms of Indian slaves are quite as 
frequent as those of negro slaves. February 8, 1734, is 
the latest date of Indian slave baptisms in the register. 
Some of these Indian slaves are recorded as legitimate chil- 
dren of slave parents. 4 

The laws of France did not permit the holding of any 
Christian in slavery. This meant that the conversion of 
Indians or other slaves would confer freedom upon them. 5 

1 Tanguay, A Travers les Registres, pp. 88, ill, 157 (instances cited). 

2 Jesuit Relations, lxx, p. 232. 

3 Dunn, Indiana, p. 127. Parkman Club Papers, p. 210, gives an ac- 
count of the marriage of two Indian slaves in 1754. About 1750 half 
the bap isms and marriages recorded in the church register of Vin- 
cennes were " red or Indian slaves," belong'ng to the commandant or to 
the inhabitants. Law, The General History of Vincennes, etc., p. 145. 

4 This register is now kept in the Mobile cathedral under the care of 
the Bishop of Mobile It was presented for examination through the 
kindness of Father Hacket. 

5 Margry, op. cit., iii, p. 66; Godwyn, The Negro and Indian's Advo- 
cate, e.c, p. 30. When arrangements for an expedition to New 



go INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [342 

But the law was never enforced. The French clergy went 
on continuously with their work of converting, baptizing 
and teaching both bond and free ; and in the " Code Noir " 
of 1724, Louis XV commanded that all slaves in the French 
colonies, " be educated in the Apostolic Roman Catholic re- 
ligion, and be baptized," and enjoined their owners to have 
these matters attended to within a reasonable time. 1 The 
code dealt directly with negro slaves, but the Indian slaves 
still in existence were necessarily included in its provisions. 
In Louisiana Indian slavery began Math the founding of 
the colony. A report of the colony written in 1704, states 
that at Fort Louis de Louisiane, having a white population 
of 180 soldiers and 27 French families numbering 64 per- 
sons, (a total of 244 white persons), there were six Indian 
boy slaves from twelve to eighteen years of age, and five 
Indian girl slaves from fifteen to twenty years of age. 2 In 
1708, the colony consisted of fourteen officers, seventy-six 
soldiers, thirteen sailors, three priests, six mechanics, one 
Indian interpreter, twenty-four laborers, twenty-eight wo- 
men, twenty-five children, (a total of 190 free persons), 
and eighty Indian slaves. 3 In 1713, besides the soldiers, 
there were twenty-eight families, twenty negroes and a few 
Indian women and children. 4 The following statistics are 

Biscay were being made, a memorial on America, February, 1684, 
called attention to this state of affairs, and urged the king to enforce 
it in order to attract to the side of the French the numerous negro, 
Indian and mulatto slaves of that country. Margry, op. cit., iii, p. 66. 

1 Fortier, A History of Louisiana, i, p. 87. 

2 Archives Nationales, Colonies, C. 13, Louisiane, Correspondance 
Generate, 1673-1706, i, p. 168. 

8 French, Flistorical Collections of Louisiana and Florida, new series, 
i, p. 99; Pickett, History of Alabama, etc., p. 179. 

* Martin, The History of Louisiana from the Earliest Period, i, p. 
i/3- 






343] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE FRENCH g l 

given in the archives of the Ministry of the Colonies in 
Paris : x 

Census of New Orleans, November 24, 1721. Recapitu- 
lation : Men, 446; Women, 140; Children, 96; Negro slaves, 
523; Indian slaves, 51. 

Census of New Orleans in 1723. Recapitulation: Men, 
bearing arms, 229; Women or girls, 169; Children, 183; 
Orphans, 45 ; Slaves, 267. 

General census of the Colony of Louisiana on January 1. 
1726. Recapitulation: Masters, 1952; Hired men and ser- 
vants, 276; Negro slaves, 1540; Indian slaves, 229. 

General census of the Department of New Orleans on 
July 1. 1727. Recapitulation: 

Masters Hired Negroes Savage 

New Orleans 729 65 127 17 

The Bayou and Chantilly 42 5 73 5 

Inhabitants up the River on the Right 243 26 883 45 

Idem on the Left 306 35 456 5 

On the Shore of Lake Ponchartrain. . 7 2 14 

On Bayou Tauchpao 2 5 8 1 

Total 1329 138 1561 73 

From these statistics it will be seen that in Louisiana the 
negro slaves far outnumbered the Indian slaves, and that 
the ratio of the number of Indian slaves to the number of 
whites in the colony was very small. A memoir concern- 
ing Natchitoches, 1720 or 1721, states that the number of 
black slaves in that settlement was thirty-four, and the 
number of Indian slaves, six (two men and four women). 3 
A report on the condition of Louisiana at large in 1744 de- 
clared that there were very few Indian slaves in the colony. 

1 Quoted in Fortier, A History of Louisiana, i, p. 101. 
1 Margry, op. cif., vi, p. 231 ; Mississippi Provincial Archives, French 
Domination, Correspondance Generate, ix, p. 12; Archives du Minisfre 
I des Colonies, C 13, vi, p. 51. 



Cj 2 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [344 

" because we are at peace with all nations : these we have 
were taken in former wars, and we keep them." * Another 
account, in 1750, states that the inhabitants of New Orleans 
consist of " French, Negroes, and some savages who are 
slaves — all these together do not number . . . more than 
1,200 persons." 2 

The smallness of the number of Indian slaves in Louis- 
iana appears due to several reasons : the generally friendly 
relations of the French and the neighboring tribes; the ab- 
sence of extensive agriculture at an early date; the neglect 
of the colonial authorities to develop a trade in savage 
slaves, like that of Carolina ; and the rapid increase in the 
importation of negro slaves by the time that occupations 
profitable for slave labor were developed. 

In the northern part of the Mississippi Valley, also, In- 
dian slavery began with the coming of the whites. Slavery 
at Vincennes and in the country below the present site of 
Terre Haute, Indiana, was regulated by the laws of Louis- 
iana. That in the country to the north was regulated by 
the customs of Canada. Indian slavery in Canada began 
early. Record exists of Indian slaves in Montreal in 1670. 3 
In Louisiana the greater number of slaves were negroes; 
whereas in Canada the larger portion were Indians. 4 In 
the early history of Vincennes most of the slaves were In- 
dians, for the inhabitants were more extensively engaged in 
the Indian trade than in agricultural pursuits. The same 
was true of the country about Detroit. Some of these 

1 The Present State of the Country and Inhabitants, European and 
Indians of Louisiana on the North Continent of America, etc., p. 26. 

r lesuit Relations, lxix, p. 211. 

8 Smith, Slatery in Canada, in Noi'a Scotia Historical Society Col- 
lections, 1896-1858, x, p. 3. 

4 Dunn, Indiana, p. 126. 



345] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE FRENCH 93 

Indians went, of course, to Louisiana; but the larger por- 
tion went to Canada. A report in 1750 shows that in the 
five French villages of the Illinois country there were 
eleven hundred whites, three hundred blacks and sixty In- 
dian slaves. 1 Indian slavery, already giving way to negro 
slavery, continued so to do after British occupation. 

Indian slaves, mostly children, are recorded in Detroit 
in 17 1 o, 2 17 12, 3 and 1715. 4 Their use continued there 
until the English occupation. A report in 1733 shows the 
Canadians trading in Indian slaves whom they seized or 
purchased from other Indians.' 1 By the terms of the sur- 
render of Montreal, 1760, already mentioned, the English 
guaranteed to the settlers all the rights in property they had 
enjoyed, and Article IV of the capitulation provided that 
all negro and Pawnee slaves should remain in their condi- 
tion of servitude. 6 In 1763, the population of Canada com- 
prised about 70,000 Europeans, 30,000 Indians and 400 
black slaves. 7 It will be seen that the number of negro 

1 Jesuit Relations, lxix, p. 145; Hinsdale, The Old Northzvest, etc., 
P- 347- 
* Burton, Cadillac's Village, or Detroit under Cadillac, p. 34. 
9 Wisconsin Historical Society Collections, xvi, p. 295. 

4 Ibid., xvi, p. 340. 

5 Beauharnois et Hocquart au Ministre. Quoted in Salone, La Colo- 
nisation de la Nouvelle-France, deuxieme edition, p. 353. 

6 Mcmoires et Documents Re'atifs a I'Histoire du Canada, pub- 
lished by the Montreal Historical Society, pp. 8-9. Records fol- 
lowing that time show Pawnee slaves still in existence down 
to 1827, Wisconsin Historical Society Collections, vii, pp. 158, 177, 
179; xi, p. 393; xii, p. 94; Nova Scotia Historical Society Col'ec- 
tions, 1896-1898, x, p. 3. In the Niagara Herald several advertisements 
are found relating to Indian slaves. One of August 25, 1802, forbids 
all persons harboring a runaway Ind'an slave. So in the Gazette and 
Oracle, early in the nineteenth century, advertisements refer to Indian 
slaves or " Pawnees " 

7 Rambaut. A Sketch of the Constitutional History of Canada, p. 28. 



y4 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [346 

slaves was very small as compared with the number in 
Louisiana. And, judging from the frequent mention of 
Indian slaves in the parish records, 1 and the not inconsid- 
erable trade in such slaves that went on with the western 
tribes, one may concede the truth of the assertion that the 
number of Indian slaves in that territory, under Canadian 
law, exceeded the number of negro slaves, even though, in 
proportion to the white population, the number was small. 
In the French colonies, the earliest method of manu- 
mission was to grant slaves their freedom verbally 
and without further formality. In the Wisconsin coun- 
try, during the first half of the eighteenth century, 
at least, there appears to have been some requirement 
or obligation, perhaps imposed by custom, for the owners 
of Indian slaves to free them after a certain period of servi- 
tude. 2 But on April 11, 1735, a memorandum of the king to 
de Beauharnois and Hocquart declared that the judges of 
the colonies might conform themselves to the custom of 
considering the Indians held in servitude as slaves, and that 
masters who might wish to grant such Indians their free- 
dom should do so by notarial deed. 3 Accordingly, on Sep- 
tember 1, 1736, an ordinance was issued at Quebec by Hoc- 
quart, the intendant, stating, with the consent of the Mar- 
quis de Beauharnois, governor and lieutenant-general of 
the colony, that anyone wishing to free any slave must 
make affirmation to that effect before a notary, to which he 
would be held. The act would be registered in the "greffe" 

1 Smith, Slavery in Canada, in Nova Scotia Historical Society Col- 
lections, 1896-1898, x, p. 3. 

* Grignon, Recollections, in Wisconsin Historical Society Collections, 
1856, iii, pp. 256-258, mentions several such instances. 

1 Report Concerning Canadian Archives, 1904, pt. ii, p. 211. 



347] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE FRENCH g- 

of the nearest royal jurisdiction. A manumission per- 
formed in any other way was declared null and void. 1 

As above stated, it was customary for the French colon- 
ists to sell the children of their female slaves. 2 The prac- 
tice might, and did, mean that a father sold his own child. 
Notice of the matter having been called to the attention of 
the king, an attempt was made to prevent the practice by 
inserting in the instructions sent to the colony in 1 721-1722, 
a provison forbidding the sale of either a female negro or 
Indian slave or her child, if a free colonist were the father 
of such a child. The same instructions further declared it 
in harmony with religion and the welfare of the colony 
that at the end of a certain period of time both mother and 
child should be given their liberty, and so be made free in- 
habitants of the colony. 3 Such a kindly attitude on the part 
of the home government met with but little response in the 
colonies. 

1 Memoires et Documents Relatifs a I'Histoire du Canada, pp. 5-6. 

An interesting example of such manumission is recorded in Louis- 
iana in 1770. On April 30th of that year, the Sieur Pierre Clermont 
appeared before the notary of the Cabildo and declared that he had 
had for a long time in his service an Indian, Louison, of the nation of 
the " Sious." The latter had served him with so much attachment 
and zeal that he desired to reward him, and believed that the best 
way to do so was to give him his freedom. As, however, he had an 
indispensable need for the Indian for three years longer, and feared 
that he might be prevented by death from liberating him, he stated 
that it was his wish that in three years Louison be set free and enjoy 
all the rights of freedom. Louison, in his turn, stated that he thanked 
the Sieur Clermont, and promised to serve him faithfully for three 
years. He also agreed to lose all rights given him by his master if he 
should be ungrateful to him. Fortier, Old Papers of Colonial Times, 
in Louisiana Historical Society Publications, i, pt. ii, 1895, p. 17. 

a Mississippi Provincial Archives, French Domination, Correspond- 
ence Gcncrale, 1716, vi, p. 355. 

' Ibid., 1721-1722, x, p. 217; Archives du Ministre des Colonies, C. 13, 
vi, p. 368. 



9 6 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [348 

Several causes contributed to the passing of Indian slav- 
ery in French territory. Wherever the American Indians 
have been brought into contact with the white races, the 
result has been disaster to the red men. The Indian's na- 
ture is not adapted to the white man's scheme of life. The 
Indian absorbed the white man's diseases and vices. Not 
the least of these vices was the love for strong drink, and 
the weakness of the natives in this respect was recognized 
and encouraged by the traders of all nations. The decrease 
in game and other food supplies as the Indians retreated 
from the sea, 1 famine followed by gluttonous excesses, 
wasting of the forests of the table lands, 2 all resulted in in- 
ferior living conditions and a consequent decrease in the 
birth rate and weakening of the tribes. As the weakened 
tribes withdrew from contact with the whites they usu- 
ally joined with stronger tribes. The removal of tribes 
from their immediate neighborhood, and the union with 
other and distant tribes, acted as a check on the whites' 
obtaining Indians as slaves. Such was the case with the 
tribes from whom the French of the Illinois country and 
Canada drew their slaves. 3 

It has already been seen that the French missionaries of 
early colonial days believed that the enslavement of Indians 
would serve as a means of spreading the Christian religion. 
They found, however, that the method of obtaining Indian 
slaves by trade only increased the distribution of spirituous 
liquors among the tribes; and so, in 1693, they asked the 
king to prohibit the Indian slave trade. An order to this 
effect was accordingly issued, but with little result. The 
" coureurs de bois " found means to carry on the trade clan- 

1 Hewat, An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the 
Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia, ii, p. 227. 
1 Wilson, A New History of the Conquest of Mexico, p. 34. 
3 Dunn, Indiana, p. 126. 



349] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE FRENCH gy 

destinely notwithstanding the penalty attached. 1 Again, in 
1736, the king decided formally to prohibit the enslavement 
of Indians and issued a decree to that effect ; 2 but to no 
advantage. 3 

The gradual passing out of existence of Indian slavery, 
furthermore, was due, in no small measure, to its unsatis- 
factory character. The leading colonists early made up 
their minds to this effect. Bienville, in a letter to the Min- 
ister of Marine, July 28, 1706, stated that the French 
colonists earnestly requested negroes to till their lands, for 
whom they were willing to pay silver, since the colonies 
found Indian slaves unsatisfactory. He furthermore re- 
quested permission for the colonists to transport Indian 
slaves to the West Indian Islands in exchange for negroes. 
The fact that the colonists were willing to trade three In- 
dians for two negroes is sufficient proof of the small value 
of Indians as slaves. 4 Another letter to the home govern- 
ment, in 17 1 7, records the same state of affairs in the 
colony. 5 

1 Carver, Travels through the Interior Parts of North America, etc., 
P. 348. 

1 Salone, La Colonisation de la Nouvelle-France, deuxieme edition, 
P. 353- 

8 In 1793, slavery was abolished in Upper Canada by act of the Pro- 
vincial Parliament. In Lower Canada, it had practically ceased by 
1800, the few remaining slaves being freed by an imperial act in 1834. 
Jesuit Relations, lxix, p. 301. The last public sale of a slave in Canada 
took place in Montreal in 1797. It has been held, however, that it was 
the proceeding of the Canadian courts, consistent with the rising pub- 
lic sentiment in England and France against slavery, rather than the 
actual state of the law, which reached the slave owners' claims, and 
finally broke them. Hamilton, Slavery in Canada, in Transactions of 
the Canadian Institute, 1890, i, p. 102. 

4 Archives Nationales, Colonies, C. 13, Louisiane, Correspondance 
Generale, i, 1678-1706, p. 514; Gayarre, History of Louisiana, i, p. 100. 

6 Mississippi Provincial Archives, French Domination, Correspond- 
ance Generale, viii, 1717-1720, pp. 73"74. 



9 8 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [350 

Indian slaves were prone to run away, and their use by 
the French as individual laborers, or their use only in small 
groups, if worked together, made escape comparatively 
easy. A letter of Perier to the home government, May 12, 
1728, declared that the traffic in Indian slaves and their use 
in the French colony was contrary to the welfare of the 
country, since such slaves served but a short time before 
they escaped back to their own tribes or to neighboring 
Indians. Moreover, these deserting Indians persuaded the 
negro slaves to run away with them. 1 A letter from the 
President of the Navy Board to la Jonquiere and Bigot, 
May 4, 1749, represented that the Indian slaves brought up 
in the colony by the officers or by the inhabitants, generally 
left them when they attained a certain age and again be- 
came uncivilized ; that they were the more dangerous on 
account of the knowledge which they had acquired of the 
country, being better able than others to make incursions 
therein ; and that through the habit of keeping these slaves 
the whites were dissuaded from becoming domestic ser- 
vants. 2 

Among the slaves the boys were not so much to be de- 
pended upon as the girls, since they were stubborn, resented 
more strongly their being held in slavery, and were more in- 
clined to run away. Long's Journal, 1768- 1782, speaking 
of the western Indians, records : " They are also full of 
pride and resentment, and will not hesitate to kill their mas- 
ters in order to gratify their revenge for a supposed injury. 
The girls are more docile, and assimilate much sooner 
into the manners of civilization." 3 It is probable that 

1 Mississippi Provincial Archives, French Domination, Correspond- 
ance Gcnera'.e, xvii, pp. 303-307. 

2 Report Concerning Canadian Archives, 1905, i, p. 117. 

•John Long's Journal, 1768-1782, in Thwa'.tes, Early Western Travels, 
ii, p. 116. 



35 1 ] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE FRENCH gg 

slaves coming from the Pawnee tribe, and held so largely 
by the French of Detroit and Canada, were more satisfac- 
tory than those coming from other tribes. 1 It has been said 
that " it would be difficult to find another of the wild tribes 
of the continent capable of subjection to domestic slavery." 2 
But the Pawnee, like other slaves, ran away. 3 

Though Indian slaves were not as profitable laborers as 
might be desired, their loss was to be avoided, if possible. 
The matter was so serious as to interest the action of the 
authorities, and in 1709, Jacques Raudot, intendant of 
Canada, issued an ordinance containing an injunction 
which forbade any slave running away, and containing pro- 
visions for imposing a fine of fifty livres on those who aided 
such runaways. 4 

Indian slaves were too few in number and too inferior in 
capacity for labor to supply the needs of the colonists. So 
an attempt was made by the home government to supply 
the needed laborers by establishing the system of inden- 
tured servants in the colonies. On November 16, 17 16, an 
ordinance directed that vessels leaving France for any of 
the king's American colonies were to carry thither, if of 
fifty tons, three servants ; of sixty to one hundred tons, 
four servants ; of one hundred tons and upward, six ser- 
vants. The period of service of such servants was fixed at 
three years. They were required to be of sound body, be- 
tween the ages of eighteen and forty, and in height not 
under four feet. These servants were to be examined be- 

1 Care should be taken to distinguish between the term " Pawnee " as 
applied to an Indian tribe, and as used by the French to mean any 
Indian slave, regardless of the tribe to which he originally belonged. 

s Parkman, The Old Regime in Canada, p. 338. 

8 Ibid., p. 388. 

* Hamilton, Slavery in Canada, in Transactions of the Canadian In- 
stitute, 1800, i, p. 102. 



loo INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [352 

fore the officers of the admiralty to see if they fulfilled the 
requirements of the law, and were to receive another exam- 
ination by the commissary on landing in America. Such 
of the redemptioners as the captain might not sell were to 
be given to some of the planters who had none, and who 
were to pay their passage. The ordinance was repeated 
May 20, 1 72 1, with the additional provision that merchants 
of the ports having permission to trade with the colonies 
were to pay sixty livres for each redemptioner whom they 
had to furnish, if individuals for that purpose were not 
furnished them by the government. 1 

The purpose of France, in making such careful provision 
for sending indentured servants to the New World, was a 
real effort to increase the population and, therefore, the 
trade of America. 2 Moreover, the home government feared 
the danger that might come to the colony by the increase 
of the black over the white population, and hoped this in- 
dentured servant system would be a means to that end. 
But the scheme had little result. The colonists preferred 
black slaves to white servants. Their term of service was 
for life instead of a short period. They were easier to 
control, cheaper to keep, and were better workers. Yet, it 
has been estimated that from 171 1 to 1728, two thousand 
five hundred redemptioners were brought to the French 
colonies. 3 Such a number of white servants must, in a 
measure, have checked the acquisition of Indian slaves. 

But the need for laborers was to be supplied in the 
French colonies by the black, instead of the white race. 
Although the home government grew to fear the result of 

1 Fortier, A History of Louisiana, i, p. 85 ; Burke, An Account of the 
European Settlements in America, i, p. 45. 
* France also had in mind the getting rid of an undesirable class. 
3 Martin, The History of Louisiana, i, p. 266. 



353] ENSLAVEMENT BY THE FRENCH IOI 

the rapid increase of the negro element, yet, at first, it 
favored the importation of blacks to the American colonies. 
In 1688, Louis XIV issued an edict authorizing the im- 
portation of negroes from Africa into America. 1 Article 
XIV of the letters patent granted by the king to Crozat, 
September 30, 171 2, gave the latter permission, if he found 
it advisable to have the blacks in Louisiana, to send a ship 
every year to the coast of Guinea to obtain them, and to 
sell them to the inhabitants of the colony. 2 So, from the 
first, negro slaves were present in the French colonies, 
though during the earlier part of the eighteenth century, 
they were outnumbered by the Indian slaves. 3 

In 1 71 3, there were but twenty negro slaves in Louis- 
iana, 4 but with the granting of the charter of the Western 
Company in 171 7, their increased importation began. A 
provision of the charter required that during the lifetime of 
the charter (twenty-five years,) not less than three thous- 
and negroes be carried to the colony. The first large im- 
portation was made by the Company in June, 17 19, when 
five hundred negroes were brought from the coast of 
Guinea. 5 For several years, the importation of negroes into 
Louisiana was one of the most profitable monopolies of the 
Western Company. 6 One authority states that, during the 
period from 1717 to 1723, one thousand, four hundred and 
forty-one negroes were brought in. 7 Another states that 

1 French, op. cit., pt. iii, p. 42. Hamilton, Slavery in Canada, in Trans- 
actions of the Canadian Institute, 1890, i, p. 102. 
1 French, op. cit., pt. iii, p. 42. 
* Rowland, Encyclopedia of Mississippi History, ii, p. 673. 

4 Wallace, History of Louisiana and Illinois, p. 239. 

5 Rowland, op. cit., ii, p. 673. 

6 French, op. cit., pt. iii, p. 21. 

' Stoddard, History of Louisiana, p. 36. 



l 02 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [354 

from 17 1 7 to 1728 eighteen were introduced. 1 The 
"Code Noir " of 1724 shows that the negro slaves had 
become the majority by that time, for no direct mention 
is made in it to Indian slaves. 2 In 1727, it was reported 
that on each of the " concessions," or leading grants, there 
were, at least, sixty negroes cultivating corn, rice, indigo 
and tobacco. 3 

To open up and work the mineral resources of Louisiana, 
Philip Frangois Renault was sent out by the Company of 
the West in 1719. On his way, he bought at San Domingo, 
in the name of his Company, five hundred negroes for 
working the mines. These negroes were taken into the 
Illinois country. 4 The number of negroes in the Illinois 
country never equaled that of the country farther south, 
yet in 1750, a Jesuit missionary found one thousand, one 
hundred whites, three hundred blacks, and sixty Indian 
slaves in five villages of the Illinois country, 5 and by 1763, 
the black population numbered over nine hundred. 6 

From the foregoing account it will be seen that the stead- 
ily increasing number of negro slaves, resulting from a pro- 
motion of the commercial interests of the home government 
and from the more satisfactory labor performed by the 
blacks, must have been the leading cause that produced the 
steady decrease in the number of Indian slaves among the 
French. 

1 Martin, History of Louisiana, i, p. 266. For an instance of one hun- 
dred and seventy-five negroes brought in one vessel to Louisiana in 
1721, see Margry, op. cit., v, p. 583. 

* See Fortier, op. cit., i, pp. 87-94. 

3 Jesuit Relations, lxvii, p. 281. 

4 Albach, Annals of the West, p. 88; Illinois Historical Society Pub- 
lications, xi, 1906, p. 49. 

6 Breese, Early History of Illinois, p. 194. 

6 Illinois Historical Society Publications, xi, 1906, p. 49. 



PART II 

THE INSTITUTION AS PRACTICED BY THE 

ENGLISH 



CHAPTER IV 
The Number of Indian Slaves 

To arrive at any knowledge of the exact number of 
Indian slaves in any of the English colonies is impossible. 
Census reports and other vital statistics are infrequent or 
lacking, especially in the early colonial period; and often in 
such statistics as are extant Indian slaves either receive 
no mention, or are classed with negro slaves without dis- 
tinction. From existing records, however, one is able to 
obtain a knowledge of the comparative numbers in the dif- 
ferent groups of colonies, and to some extent in the in- 
dividual colonies, during the colonial period. New Eng- 
land and the southern colonies were the sections that em- 
ployed Indian slave labor most extensively, the south tak- 
ing precedence, for climatic conditions there were more 
favorable, and economic conditions made necessary a larger 
quantity of servile labor than was required in the north. 1 
Yet New England made use of the natives as slaves as long 
as they lasted, 2 and drew further supplies from Maine, 3 
the Carolinas, 4 and other districts. 5 

Among the English colonies, the Carolinas stood first 

1 Doyle, English Colonies in America, The Puritan Colonies, ii, p. 506. 

2 /. e., until after the Pequot and King Philip Wars. 

3 Freeman, The History of Cape Cod, p. 72. 

4 Connecticut Colonial Records, 1715, p. 516. 

6 Coffin, A Sketch of the History of Newbury, etc., p. 337 '< Essex 
Institute Historical Collections, vii, p. 73; Connecticut Colonial Records, 
I7XI, P- 233. 

357] 105 



io 6 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [358 

in the use of Indians as slaves. Such use began with the 
founding of the colony. The need for laborers was great; 
the source of supply was near at hand and the colonists 
availed themselves of their opportunity. Probably captives 
of the Stono War became the Indian slaves mentioned in 
the inventory of Captain Valentine Byrd, " one of the gran- 
dees of the time." 1 In a report on conditions in the 
colony, made to the proprietors, September 17, 1708, by 
Governor Nathaniel Johnson and his council, the number 
of Indian men slaves was given as 500, Indian women 
slaves, as 600, Indian children slaves, as 300, a total of 
1400 Indian slaves. The number of negroes at the same 
time was stated as 4100, of indentured servants, 120, and 
of free whites, 3960. The governor gave the cause of 
the rapid increase in the number of the Indian slaves dur- 
ing the five preceding years, as " our late conquest over the 
French and Spanish, and the success of our forces against 
the Appalaskys and in other Indian engagements." 2 

Only a small portion of the whole number of Indians 
enslaved were kept in the colony. 2 Yet, in 1708, it was 
estimated that the native population furnished one-fourth 
of the whole number of slaves in South Carolina. 4 The 
public records of that colony contain a list of ninety- 
eight Indian slaves with their owners' names, taken by 
the Spaniards and their allies in 171 5, during the Indian 

1 Hawks, History of North Carolina, etc., second edition, ii, p. 577. 

2 Bancroft Papers Relating to Carolina, in New York City Public 
Library, MSS. vol. i, 1662-1769; Rivers, A Sketch of the History of 
South Carolina to the Close of the Proprietary Government, etc., p. 
232; South Carolina Historical Society Collections, ii, p. 217; Thomas, 
The Indians of North America, etc., p. 95; Schaper, Sectionalism in 
South Carolina, p. 263. 

3 Logan, A History of the Upper Country of South Carolina, i, p. 189. 
* Rivers, A Sketch of the History of South Carolina to the Close of 

Proprietary Government, etc., p. 231. 



359] THE NUMBER OF INDIAN SLAVES 107 

war, and carried to St. Augustine. The number of these 
slaves belonging to individual persons varied from one to 
ten. 1 A report of 1723 mentions the number of slaves in 
South Carolina and Georgia as ranging from 16,000 to 
20,000, " chiefly negroes and a few Indians." 2 Another 
report of the following year estimates the number of slaves 
as 32,000, "mostly negroes", 3 In 1728, the population 
of St. Thomas' parish, South Carolina, consisted of 565 
whites, 950 negro slaves, and 60 Indian slaves.* From 

''■Public Records of South Carolina, 1711-1716, vi, p. 276; British 
Public Record Office, Am. N. I., vol. 620. 

' Hewat, An Historical Account of the Rise of the Colonies of South 
Carolina and Georgia, i, p. 309. 

s Glenn, A Description of South Carolina, etc., p. 81 ; Charleston 
Year Book, 1883, p. 407. (A quotation from a pamphlet entitled, 
" The Importance of the British Plantations in America to this King- 
dom," London, 1731). 

* Dalcho, An Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
in South Carolina, p. 287; Humphreys, An Historical Account of the 
Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts, etc., edition of 1730, pp. 103-105. 

As the result of the intermingling of negroes and Indians, which 
came about when the coast tribes dwindled and the small number 
of remaining members moved inland, associated and intermarried 
with the negroes until they finally lost their identity and were classed 
with that race, a considerable portion of the blood of the southern 
negroes is unquestionably Indian. Nineteenth Annual Report of the 
Bureau of American Ethnology, 1897- 1898, p. 233. It was these 
mixed bloods, as well as the pure blood Indians, to which the statutes 
referred by the terms " Indian slaves " and " mustee," or " mestee," 
slaves. Occasional mention is made in the colonial newspapers of 
slaves of the mixed red and black races. American Weekly Mercury, 
October 24, 1734. The opinion has even been advanced that, in 
certain of the colonies, there never were any pure blood Indian 
slaves. Mr. W. B. Melius of Albany, New York, asserts; "I do not 
believe the pure Indian was sold as a slave (in New York), I believe 
the Indian who was the slave was not without mixture." New York 
State Library Bulletin, History. No. 4, May, 1900. One instance of 
the mixture of the Indians and negroes in New York is found in a 
complaint made in 1717, that negro slaves ran away, and were secreted 
by the Minisink with whose women they intermarried. Ibid., No. 4, 
May, 1900. 



log INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [360 

these statistics, it will be seen that the number of Indian 
slaves was much smaller than the number of negroes, and 
that it was growing smaller toward the middle of the eigh- 
teenth century, while that of negroes was constantly in- 
creasing. 

The early history of Indian slavery in Georgia is so 
bound up with that of Carolina, the Indian wars, and the 
difficulties with the Spaniards of Florida, as to require but 
little especial attention. After the settlement of Georgia 
as a separate colony, occasional mention is made of Indian 
slaves. 1 In 1759, as the basis for a tax bill, the number of 
slaves was placed at 2500, but a committee of the legislature 
declared the number to have been underestimated. How 
many of this number were Indians is not known. The 
colony was settled at a time when Indian slavery was pass- 
ing out of existence. So it is safe to state that the num- 
ber of such slaves was small. 

The number of Indian slaves in Virginia, also, was small, 
owing largely to the number of indentured servants, and to 
the early introduction and fitness of the negroes for the 
labor of the colony. In 1671, Berkeley reported the whole 
population of the colony as 40,000, the number of inden- 
tured servants as 6000, and that of slaves as 2000. 2 But no 
division of slaves according to color was made. In certain 
sections but few slaves were used. The Scotch-Irish and 
the Germans preferred their own labor to that of slaves. 
Some Indians were taken in war, but they were inconsider- 
able when compared with the number captured in the 
Carolinas. Occasional mention of Indian slaves is found 
well into the eighteenth century. 

Indian slavery in Massachusetts began early. Follow - 

1 Colonial Records of the State of Georgia, vi, p. 259, mentions an 
Indian slave in 1749. 

2 Howe, Historical Collections of Virginia, etc., p. 134. 



361] THE NUMBER OF INDIAN SLAVES IO g 

ing the Pequot War, 1637, forty-eight captives were re- 
tained as slaves in the colony. 1 After King Philip's War. 
1675, also, certain of the captives were made slaves, 2 but 
no record exists of the exact number. The various re- 
cords and histories of the Massachusetts towns show a 
general distribution of Indian slaves throughout the colony 
during the colonial period, such as existed following the 
two Indian wars above noted. Mere mention may be made 
of some of these: Plymouth, 3 Boston, 4 Roxbury, 5 Ipswich." 
Quincy, 7 Charleston, 8 Maiden, 9 Haverhill, 10 Milton. 11 None 
of the official reports on the condition of New England 
makes mention of Indian slaves. 12 But statistics show the 
number of slaves in Massachusetts in 1720 to have been 
2000, including a few Indians. 13 In 1790, according to the 

1 Winthrop, Journal History of New England, i, p. 225, in Original 
Narratives of Early American History. 

I See Chapter V. 

3 " It seems probable that there were no Indian slaves in Plymouth 
before the division of land in 1623." Massachusetts Historical Society 
Collections, series 4, iii, p. 114. 

4 Boston News Letter and other newspapers. 

5 Ellis, The History of Roxbury Town, p. 136. 

6 Felt, The History of Ipswich, pp. 306, 320; Boston Weekly Mercury. 
October 2, 1735. 

7 Wilson, Where American Independence Began, p. 154. 

8 Corey, The History of Maiden, p. 416. 

9 Ibid. 

10 Chase, The History of Haverhill, pp. 239, 248. 

II Earle, Customs and Fashions in Old New England, p. 84. 

12 Doyle, English Colonies in America, The Puritan Colonies, ii, p. 68. 
In 1708, Governor Dudley made a report on slaves and the slave 
trade to the Board of Trade, in which he stated that there were 400 
negro slaves in Massachusetts. No mention was made of Indians. 
Historical Magazine, x, p. 52. 

18 American Antiquarian Society Proceedings, 1885-1887, new series, 
iv, p. 216. 



IIO INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [362 

United States census report, the number of slaves in the 
state was 6,001, which number included about 200 half 
breed Indians. 1 Since Massachusetts took the lead in the 
two Indian wars of New England, it seems likely that the 
number of Indian slaves in that colony exceeded that in 
either Connecticut or Rhode Island. 2 

The Rhode Island laws from 1636 to 1704 make 
no mention of Indian slaves. Yet they were held in 
the colony before 1704. The records of Block Island 
show them there in sufficient numbers, in 1675, to warrant 
the town council regulating their action. Captives taken 
in King Philip's War were retained in the colony tempor- 
arily as slaves. The Boston newspapers occasionally men- 
tion runaway Indian slaves of Block Island. 3 Both negro 
and Indian slavery reached a development in colonial Nar- 
ragansett unusual in the northern colonies. 4 In 1730. 
South Kingston had a population of 935 whites, 333 
negroes and 223 Indian slaves. Eighteen years later, the 
proportion of races was nearly the same: 1405 whites, 380 
negroes, and 193 Indians. 5 As late as 1778, the laws of 
Rhode Island mentioned Indian slaves. 

Indian slavery in Connecticut began almost with the 
founding of the colony, and came about as a result of the 
Pequot War (1636). The captives taken in the war were 

1 American Statistical Association Collections, i, pp. 208-214; 
Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, series I, iv, p. 199. 

2 Livermore, A History of Block Island, etc., p. 60. 

3 New England Courant, June 17, 1723 — A Spanish Indian runaway 
from Newport; Boston Gazette, October 28, 1728 — An Indian runa- 
way slave from Warwick, Rhode Island. 

4 Channing, The Narragansett Planters, p. 10, in Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity Studies, iv. 

5 Ibid., p. 10. 

• Colonial Records of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 
viii, p. 359- 



363] THE NUMBER OF INDIAN SLAVES m 

assigned directly to the colony and were retained and dis- 
tributed among the inhabitants. 1 The colonists appear to 
have held a greater number of such slaves then than at any 
later period. Certain Indians, also, were kept in the colony 
as slaves following King Philip's War, but the number is 
unknown. 2 Local histories show them in different towns 
well into the eighteenth century. 3 An answer sent to a 
query from the Board of Trade in 1680 states that there 
were then thirty slaves in Connecticut, but no mention is 
made of Indian slaves though they existed in the colony. 4 

The number of Indian slaves in New Hampshire was 
undoubtedly very small. During the Pequot War and 
King Philip's War, New Hampshire remained at peace with 
the Indians, and the statement has been made that no New 
Hampshire merchant or captain, during the Indian wars, 
kidnapped natives or consciously broke faith with them. 5 
The close connection with Massachusetts, however, made 
inevitable the existence of Indian slaves in the former col- 
ony, 6 and the Boston newspapers occasionally mention such 
slaves as late as approximately 1750. 7 

1 Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation, p. 342, in Original 
Narratives of Early American History. 

- See pp. 130-131, 150. 

s Caulkins, History of New London, pp. 330, 335, mentions Indian 
slaves in 1711 and 1735; An Indian woman slave lived in Westbury 
until her death in 1774. Steiner, History of Slavery in Connecticut, 
p. 21, in Johns Hopkins University Studies, xi. 

* Steiner, op. cit., p. 12, in Johns Hopkins University Studies, xi. 

6 Sanborn, New Hampshire, an Epitome of Popular Government, 
P- 137- 

6 Sanborn, op. cit., p. 151, states that in 1720, hardly an Indian re- 
mained in New Hampshire, except, perhaps, an enslaved captive. 

' The Boston Postboy, May 2, 1743, advertises a runaway Indian 
slave from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The same paper, July 25, 
1743, advertises another runaway Indian slave from New Castle, 
in the same colony. 



i I2 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [364 

In the middle group of colonies, the number of Indian 
slaves was never large, and, in comparison with that in 
either the southern or New England groups, it was con- 
spicuously small. There appear to have been more of such 
slaves in New York than in any other colony of the group, 
a condition due to its greater trade with the colonies which 
exported them. The English colony, furthermore, took 
over no Indian slaves from its Dutch predecessor. 1 

1 " In theory, at least, the Hollander considered the Indian a man 
like himself, with analogous rights to life, liberty and possessions." 
Consequently, " Indians were not enslaved in New Netherland." Van 
Rensselaer, History of the City of New York in the Seventeenth 
Century, i, p. 63. These statements are rather difficult to prove. 
Holding Indians as slaves who had been enslaved elsewhere and then 
brought into the colony, and making slaves in the colony and then 
sending them out of it, were practices that unquestionably existed, 
even if on a small scale. The declaration of the governor and coun- 
cil of New York in 1680 that " all Indians here have always been, 
and are, free, and not slave, except such as have been formerly 
brought from the Bay and Foreign Ports," (Brodhead, History of 
the State of New York, first edition, ii, p. 331), shows the presence 
of some Indian slaves in the Dutch colony. 

The records of New Netherland contain accounts of manumission 
in that colony of slaves called Spaniards and bearing Spanish 
names. Whether these individuals were Spanish Indians, or negroes 
from the Spanish Islands, is not specified in the records. One such 
person received his freedom in 1645, by payment of 300 carolus guild- 
ers. O'Callaghan, Calendar of Historical Manuscripts in the Office 
of the Secretary of State, Albany, New York, pt. i, p. 45. Another 
received his freedom in 1646, in return for his long and faithful ser- 
vices. O'Callaghan, op. cit., pt. i, p. 105. Two others, slaves in the 
Company's service, were freed in 1664. O'Callaghan, op. cit., pt. i, 
p. 264. Still others, belonging presumably to individual owners, re- 
ceived freedom in this same year. O'Callaghan, op. cit., pt. i, p. 269. 

Two incidents of enslavement of Indians in New Netherland are 
noteworthy, even if the individuals concerned were subsequently sent 
out of the colony. The first instance occurred in 1644, in connection 
with the Indian troubles of that time. At the close of the diffi- 
culties, some of the Indian prisoners were sent by Governor Kieft 
to the Bermudas " as a present to the English governor." Still others 
were given to the " oldest and most experienced soldiers," who, at 



365] THE NUMBER OF INDIAN SLAVES H3 

The inhabitants of New York, under Dutch or English 
rule, never waged any war on the order of those in New 
England against the Indian tribes. Nor did the distribution 
of New England captives affect this colony to any great 
extent. A few Indian slaves were introduced from for- 
eign parts, but the selling and holding of Indians as slaves 
was never a general custom. 1 The existence of Indian 
slaves, however, was recognized by a decree of the gov- 
ernor and council in 1680. 2 An Indian slave was sold, 

that time, were allowed to go to Holland. Brodhead, History of the 
State of New York, revised edition, i, p. 396; New York Colonial 
Documents, i, p. 215; Van Rensselaer, op. cit., i, p. 235. The second 
instance was connected with the Esopus Indians. On May 25, 1660, 
a resolution was taken in the council to transport to Curaqao all but 
two or three of the lately acquired Esopus Indians, " to be employed 
there, or at Buenaire, with the negroes in the Company's service." 
Brodhead, op. cit., revised edition, i, p. 676; O'Callaghan, Calendar 
of Historical Manuscripts in the Office of the Secretary of State in 
Albany, pt. i, p. 295. On June 29th, Stuyvesant issued an order, and 
arranged for their passage. O'Callaghan, op. cit., pt. i, p. 214. 
O'Callaghan, History of New Netherland, etc., ii, p. 420, gives the 
number transported as eleven. Schoonmaker, The History of Kings- 
ton, p. 16, states it as twenty. Those retained in the colony on this 
occasion were not enslaved, but were to be punished " as might be 
thought proper or as necessity might demand." Schoonmaker, 
op. cit., p. 16. The relations with the Iroquois had prevented any 
serious Indian wars in the colony, and because of this relation Stuy- 
vesant's act was considered highly impolitic. His course, which was 
perhaps patterned after the action of the English following the 
Pequot War, he sought to justify in his declaration that "their en- 
largement would have a tendency to create disaffection toward our 
nation. Our barbarian neighbors would glory, as if they had inspired 
us with terror." Schoonmaker, op. cit., p. 16. In 1661 these Indians 
were recalled from slavery. O'Callaghan, Calendar of Historical 
Manuscripts, etc., pt. i, p. 295. 

1 Van Rensselaer, History of the City of New York in the Seven- 
teenth Century, i, p. 193. 

' Brodhead, History of the State of New York, revised edition, i, 
P- 193- 



1I4 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [366 

July 30, 1687, in Hempstead, Long Island. 1 The narra- 
tive of grievances against Jacob Leisler includes the fol- 
lowing: "The same night, December 23, 1689, an Indian 
slave, belonging to Philip French, was dragged to the Fort 
(New York), and there imprisoned." 2 Aaron Schuyler 
of New York, 1693, gave to each of his two daughters, in 
his will, an Indian slave woman. 3 In July, 1703, the gov- 
ernor received a petition regarding an Indian slave. 4 The 
will of William Smith, of the manor of St. George, Suf- 
folk County, April 23, 1704, divided a number of negro and 
Indian slaves among his children. 5 In 1715, certain Indians 
complained that the whites were enslaving native children 
entrusted to them for instruction. 6 In 1724, the Reverend 
Mr. Jenny reported : " There are a few negro and Indian 
slaves in my parish." 7 On July 3, 1726, the Reverend Mr. 
Vesey of New York, in a letter to the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, stated that in 
the colony there were " about one thousand and four hun- 
dred Indian and negro slaves," 8 but tells nothing about the 
proportion of each. Colonel Johnson's letter to Governor 
Clinton, January 22, 1750, 9 and William Johnson's letter 

1 Records of the Towns of North and South Hempstead, Long Island, 
ii, p. 60. 

2 Northrup, Slavery in New York, in New York State Library Bul- 
letin, History. No. 4, May, 1900, p. 305. 

3 Ibid. Note that April 27, 1699, Bellomont reported to the Lords of 
Trade : " They have no other servants in this country but negroes." 

* O'Callaghan, Calendar of Historical Manuscripts in the Office of 
the Secretary of State, Albany, New Yory, pt. ii, p. 314. 
6 New York Historical Society Collections, 1892, i, p. 413. 
6 New York Colonial Documents, v, p. 433. 
' Scharf, History of Westchester County, etc., ii, p. 667. 

8 Ecclesiastical Records of the State of New York, iv, p. 2357 ; Dix, 
History of the Parish of Trinity Church in the City of New York, 
i, p. 203. 

9 New York Colonial Documents, vi, p. 546. 



367] THE NUMBER OF INDIAN SLAVES H5 

to G. W. Banyar, June 28, 1771, 1 the former relating to In- 
dian children held as slaves, and the latter mentioning a 
Pawnee Indian slave in New York, show the existence of 
such slaves until a late date. Occasional mention is found 
in the newspapers of the time of runaway Indian slaves. 2 
From the evidence the conclusion is that although the exist- 
ence of Indian slavery was continuous in New York 
throughout the colonial period, the number of Indian 
slaves, in comparison with that of individual colonies in 
New England and the south, was small. 

William Penn, speaking of his purpose in founding a 
colony in America said : " I went thither to lay the foun- 
dation of a free colony for all mankind." Yet in Penn- 
sylvania existed the indentured servant, the negro slave 
and the Indian slave. Considering the attitude and the 
relations of Penn and his followers toward the red men 
one would hardly expect to find the Indians enslaved. In 
the absence of wars with the natives, 3 no Indian captives 
were reduced to servitude. The Indian slaves used were 
brought from other colonies. The newspapers contain ac- 
counts of their being bought and sold, and of their running 

1 O'Callaghan, Documentary History of New York, ii, p. 984; 
Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society Collections, xxx, p. 596. 

2 New York Gazette, July 23, 1733 (a runaway Indian slave from 
Flushing) ; March 3, 1734 (a runaway Indian slave from Westchester) ; 
February 13, 1739 (a runaway slave from New York City). New York 
Weekly Mercury, October 27, November 3, and November 10, 1740 (a 
runaway Indian slave from New York) ; August 16, 1756 (a runaway 
Indian slave from Long Island) ; May 30 and June 13, 1757 (a run- 
away Indian slave from "the mines near Second River"); June 12, 
June 19, June 26, July 3, 1758 (a runaway Indian slave from New- 
castle, Westchester County). 

1 The Delaware Indians had been conquered by the Iroquois, and 
so humbled that they were glad to accept the friendship of the 
Quakers and live in peace. Parkman, The Conspiracy of Pontiac, 
etc., sixth edition, i, p. 82. 



ri 6 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [368 

away, as in the other colonies. 1 The leading men of the 
colony owned them. Penn's own deputy, Governor Wil- 
liam Markham, owned one, born in 1700, who, by the 
terms of Markham's will, was to be freed at the age of 
twenty-five. 2 In a bill of sale of the personal effects of 
Sir William Keith, dated May 26, 1726, an Indian woman 
and her son were mentioned among the seventeen slaves 
listed. 3 

In 1780, a farmer of East Nottingham, Chester County, 
registered, at the county seat, the names of an Indian girl, 
aged twenty-four years, a slave for life, and of an Indian 
man in slavery until he arrived at the age of thirty-one 
years. 4 The action of the Friends' Yearly Meeting in 
1 7 19, also, shows that Indian slaves, as well as negro 
slaves, were owned by the members of that religious 
society. 5 

It has been said that slavery in New Jersey was more 
prevalent among the Dutch settlements and the plantations 
of South Jersey than in the Calvinistic towns of East 
Jersey. 6 Since the number of negro slaves throughout the 
Dutch possessions of America was considerable, it may be 

1 The Pennsylvania Gazette, April 20, 1737, October 5, 1738, March 
16, 1 73 1. The American Daily Mercury, March 24, 1720; May 24, 
1726; August 28, 1729; July 30, 1730; August 16, 1733; July 8, 1771. 
The Pennsylvania Journal, June 18, 1726. 

' Scharf, History of Delaware, i, p. 180 ; Smith, History of Delaware 
County, Pennsylvania, p. 219. 

* Martin, Chester and its Vicinity, p. 189. 

4 Smith, History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, p. 335; Martin, 
Chester and its Vicinity, p. 189; Futhey and Cope, History of Chester 
County, Pennsylvania, etc., p. 424. The registra'ion was made in ac- 
cordance with the terms of the act of 1780, which provided for the 
registration of all negro and mulatto slaves and servants for life. 

5 Report of the Friends' Yearly Meeting of Pennsylvania and the 
Jersies, from the 19th to the 24th of the 7th month, 1719, p. 211. 

6 Lee, New Jersey as a Colony and as a State, i, p. 199. 



369] THE NUMBER OF INDIAN SLAVES II7 

concluded that the scarcity of Indian slaves was due to con- 
ditions rather than to scruples, though the presence of a 
Quaker element may have affected the situation. The 
proximity of the powerful Iroquois, also, by shutting off 
the source of possible supply, may have had something to do 
with the matter. The number of Indian slaves in New 
Jersey was very small, yet the newspapers of the time show 
the presence of such a servile class in the colony through- 
out the colonial period. 1 

In Maryland, there appears to have been even a smaller 
number of Indian slaves than in New Jersey. There were 
no Indian wars to furnish captives, 2 and the Indians from 
the Carolinas were sent to ports in New England where the 
demand for them was greater. In Maryland indentured 
servants largely supplied the need for laborers and so mini- 
mized the use of the natives as slaves. 

1 Cornelius Van Vorst had a slave known as " Half Indian Jack," 
who died at Harsimus, February 2, 1831, at the age of 102 years. 
Winfield, History of the County of Hudson, New lersey, p. 434. 

The New York Gazette, June 24, July 8, July 15, July 29, August 12, 
and August 26, advertises a runaway Indian slave, and a second slave, 
half Indian and half negro, from Monmouth County, New Jersey. 
The American Weekly Mercury, October 24, October 31, and Novem- 
ber 7, 1734, advertises a runaway slave, half Indian and half negro, 
from Perth Amboy, New Jersey. 

8 The Yoamaco Indians of that section had been so preyed upon by 
the " Susquahannocks " that they had abandoned their country. Old- 
mixon, The British Empire in America, etc., i, p. 189. 



CHAPTER V 
Processes of Enslavement : Warfare 

Of the processes in vogue among the English for the 
acquisition of Indian slaves, the most productive was that 
of warfare. 1 With the exception of the Pequot War and 
King Philip's War in New England, the Indian wars in 
the English colonies were confined to the south, and there 
the greatest number of Indian war captives were enslaved. 

After the Indian massacre of 1622 in Virginia, there 
was published in London, in the same year, a tract entitled : 
" The Relation of the Barbarous Massacre in Time of 
Peace and League, treacherously executed by the native 
infidels upon the English, the Tzventy-second of March, 
1622, published by Authority." The general trend of the 
tract is to show the good that might result to the plantation 
from this disaster. Number five of the possible results 
reads : " Because the Indians, who before were used as 
friends, may now most justly be compelled to servitude 
in mines, and the like, of whom some may be sent for the 
use of the Summer Islands." 2 

The policy advocated by the tract was carried out in suc- 

1 Lawson, A New Voyage to Carolina, etc., p. 194, states that the 
Indians of the Carolina country refused to sell their children, though 
they would sell anything else they possessed for wampum. For pre- 
cedents when the English sold white captives in war, see Trowbridge, 
A History of Ancient Maritime Interests in New Haven, p.. 47; Lecky, 
A History of England in the Eighteenth Century, ii, p. 189. 

* Quoted in Bannister, British Colonization and Colored Tribes, 
pp. 49-54. 

118 [370 



371 ] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: WARFARE no, 

ceecling Indian wars in Virginia. The accounts of a certain 
Thomas Smallcomb, lieutenant at Fort Royal on Pamun- 
key, who was probably killed in the war with Opechanca- 
nough, show him possessed at the time of his death, 1646, 
of several Indian slaves. 1 It seems probable that these 
slaves were captives in war. After his rebellion, 1676, 
Bacon sold some of his Indian prisoners. 2 The rest were 
disposed of by Governor Berkeley. 3 

From the beginning of the colony, the settlers of Caro- 
lina were in trouble with the Indians. In September, 1671, 
war was declared against the Kussoe, a tribe on the south- 
ern frontier who posed as allies of the Spaniards, and who 
vexed the Carolina settlers with petty depredations. The 
Kussoe were quickly defeated, and the prisoners sent to be 
sold out of the colony, unless ransomed by their country- 
men. 4 During the war with the Stono Indians in 1680, 
the captive Indians were brought to Charleston and sold 
by Governor West to the traders in the colony to be 
carried to the West Indies as slaves. 5 

The breaking out of the war of the Spanish Succession 
in 1 70 1 gave Governor Moore a chance to attack the Span- 
ish Indians,, capture and sell them under the excuse of the 
rules of war. Therefore, in 1702, he led a force of 
militia and Indians against St. Augustine, burned the city. 

1 William and Mary College Quarterly, vi, p. 214. 

* The Narrative of Bacon's Rebellion, in Winder Papers, Virginia 
State Library, reprinted in Virginia Magazine of History, iv, 1896- 1897, 
p. 140, tells of forty-five Indian captives taken. " The plunder and 
captives estimated noe lesse than 6 or 700, the goodes being three 
horse loades." 

3 Calendar of State Papers, colonial series, x, p. 165. Later all but 
five were restored to the queen by Ingram, one of Bacon's officers. 

4 Rivers, A Sketch of the History of South Carolina, etc., p. 106. 

5 Hewat, op. cit., i, p. 78; Grahame, The History of the United States. 
etc., ii, p. 113. 



I2 o INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [372 

and carried off, as slaves, whatever Indians he could ob- 
tain from the Spanish Indian villages along the way. 1 A 
second attack on St. Augustine was made by Moore in 
1704, with the purpose of destroying missions and carrying 
off slaves. 2 An advance into the territories of the 
Apalachee resulted in the destruction of several missions, 
and the capture of more than a thousand Indians, some 
free, some slave. 3 Nearly all the Apalachee were distri- 
buted as slaves among the Carolina settlers. 4 The en- 
slavement of Indians, indeed, was carried on wholesale. 
A letter to the proprietors, July 10, 1708, states that " the 
garrison of St. Augustine is by this war reduced to the 
bare walls, their cattle and Indian towns all consumed, 
either by us in our invasion of that place, or by our Indian 
subjects . . . they have driven the Floridians to the islands 
of the cape, have brought in and sold many hundred of 
them, and maybe now continue that trade, so that in some 
five years, they'll reduce the barbarians to a fearless num- 
ber." 5 In 1708, Colonel Barnwell of South Carolina made 
an expedition to the Appalachian province of Florida. It 
is thought that this was the time when Captain Nairn of 
South Carolina, with a party of Yamasee Indians, advanced 
to the vicinity of Lake Okechobee and brought back a 
number of captive Indians as slaves. 6 A similar expedi- 

1 Rivers, op. cit., p. 200. 

8 Religious hatred and race hatred, as well as the desire for per- 
sonal gain, dictated Moore's action. Note that the constant enmity 
of the Spanish and English Indians, and their raids upon each other, 
gave him excellent opportunity to accomplish his purpose. 

' Hewat, op. cit., i, p. 157. 

4 Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 
P. 233. 

5 Public Records of South Carolina, v, 1700-1710, p. 196; British 
Public Record Office, vol. 620. 

6 Fairbanks, History of Florida from its Discovery, etc., p. 179. 



373] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: WARFARE I2 i 

tion of Colonel Palmer in 1727 against the Yamasee re- 
sulted in the destruction of many Indian towns, the slaugh- 
ter of many natives, and the carrying off of great numbers 
to Charleston as slaves. 1 

As the result of the three expeditions sent by South 
Carolina from 1702 to 1708 against the Yamasee, Apala- 
chee, and Timucua of northern Florida, there was carried 
back to Charleston, for sale as slaves, almost the entire 
population of seven towns, in all, some 1400 persons. 2 The 
captives taken in 171 5 when the Yamasee and Creek In- 
dians made a foray upon the South Carolina frontier, were 
sold as slaves. Mr. Johnston, a South Carolina mission- 
ary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
Foreign Parts, in his letter to the Society, December 19, 
171 5, states: " It is certain many of the Yammousees and 
Creek Indians were against the war all along. But our 
military men were so bent upon revenge, and so desirous 
to enrich themselves by making all the Indians slaves that 
fall into yr hands .... that it is in vain to represent 
the cruelty and injustice of such a procedure "." 

Throughout the Tuscarora War in North Carolina, In- 
dian captives were retained or sold as slaves. 4 At the be- 
ginning of military operations, following the Indian mas- 
sacre of 171 1, the friendly Indians agreed to help the Eng- 
lish against their enemy upon promise of a reward of six 
blankets for each man killed by them, and the usual price 

1 Fairbanks, op. cit., p. 189; Fairbanks, The History and Antiquities 
of the City of St. Augustine, etc., p. 139. 

* Hodge, op. cit., pt. i, p. 875 ; pt. ii, p. 600. 

3 Records of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
Foreign Parts. 

* A few Indians were captured before this, and a few more were 
imported, like other slaves. Bassett, Slavery and Servitude in the 
Colony of North Carolina, p. 72, in Johns Hopkins University Studies, 
xiv. 



J22 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [374 

of slaves for each woman and child delivered as captives. 1 
During the course of the war several hundred Indian allies 
were used by the English, 2 and these allies took advantage 
of the opportunity to obtain large number of Indian cap- 
tives to sell to the slave traders of the time. 

In an attack on an Indian fort in 171 1, thirty-nine wo- 
men and children were captured and disposed of in the 
settlements as slaves. 3 The two chief expeditions during 
the war were those of Colonel Barnwell, who was sent by 
South Carolina in January, 171 2, and of Colonel Moore in 
January and February, 1713. Colonel Barnwell's expedi- 
tion took two hundred Indian women and children 
prisoners. 4 The expedition of Colonel Moore virtually 
ended the war by capturing the fort in which the Tuscarora 
had taken refuge. 3 Nine hundred men, women and chil- 
dren were killed or taken prisoners. 6 In both expeditions 
the allied Indians secured as many as possible of the cap- 
tured Indians whom they took along with them to sell as 
slaves in Charleston, 7 and they still further increased their 
supply of slaves by attacking the peaceful Indians along 
the route of their return to South Carolina. 8 During the 
course of the war more than seven hundred Indians were 
sold into slavery. 9 

The earliest of the slave-producing wars in New England 

1 North Carolina Colonial Records, i, p. 815. 

' McCrady, The History of South Carolina under Proprietary Gov- 
ernment, p. 499. 

* North Carolina Colonial Records, i, p. 826. 

4 Ibid., i, p. 875. '"Ibid., ii, p. iv. 6 Ibid., i, p. 826. 

''Ibid., ii, p. 30; McCrady, op. cit., p. 526; South Carolina Historical 
and Genealogical Magazine, ix, 1908, pp. 33, 39, 41. 

8 McCrady, op. cit., p. 566; Rivers, A Sketch of the History of South 
Carolina, etc., p. 254; South Carolina Historical and Genealogical 
Magazine, viii, 1908, pp. 28-54. 

9 Bassett, op. cit., p. 73, in Johns Hopkins University Studies, xiv. 



375] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: WARFARE I2 $ 

was that with the Pequot in 1637. The war consisted of 
two battles : the Mistick Fight, and the Swamp Fight. In 
the first of these two events, but seven captives were taken. 1 
In the second, the Swamp Fight, about one hundred and 
eighty captives were taken. 2 Two of the sachems taken in 
the Swamp Fight were spared, on promise that they guide 
the English to the retreat of Sassacus. The other men 
captives, some twenty or thirty in number, were put to 
death. 3 The remaining captives, consisting of about eighty 
women and children, were divided. Some were given to 
the soldiers, whether gratis or for pay does not appear. 
Thirty were given to the Narraganset who were allies of 
the English, forty-eight were sent to Massachusetts and 
the remainder were assigned to Connecticut. 4 The women 

1 These Indians had never forgotten the seizure of twenty-seven of 
their number by Thomas Hunt who had been in Smith's expedition 
of 1614, and were, in consequence, always antagonistic to the whites. 
As the result of their depredations, the Connecticut general court. 
May 1, 1637, declared an offensive war against them. See copy of the 
court record in Orr, History of the Pequot War, etc., p. ix. Mason 
records that one cause of not pursuing the Indians farther was the 
Sabbath coming on. Mason, A Brief Narrative of the Pequot War, 
in Orr, op. cit., p. 34. 

1 Ibid., p. 39. 

3 Winthrop, Journal History of New England, i, p. 225, in Original 
Narratives of Early American History; Hubbard, A Narrative of the 
Indian Wars in New England, p. 42. They were carried into the 
harbor and drowned. Mather, Magnalia, edition of 1820, ii, p. 483. 

It has been stated that Massachusetts made no effort to retain the 
captive male Pequot as slaves because of the admonition given in 
Leviticus, xxiv, 44, that the heathen of the land in which the 
Israelitish people dwelt were not to be enslaved, but only those " that 
were round about them " — the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and 
Syrians, whose utter extermination had not been expressly decreed. 
Historical Magazine, x, p. 49. 

4 Winthrop, Journal, i, p. 225, in Original Narratives of Early Ameri- 
ican History; Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation, p. 342, in 
Original Narratives of Early American History. Winthrop states the 



12A INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [376 

and girls of the Massachusetts captives were distributed 
among the towns. 1 It seems probable that Connecticut 
made a similar disposition of its share of the captives re- 
gardless of sex. 2 The male children among the Massachu- 
setts captives were ordered by the Massachusetts gen- 
eral court, 1637, to be carried to the Bermudas by Wil- 
liam Pierce, and sold there as slaves. 3 The shipload of 
Indians, however, consisting of fifteen boys and two wo- 
men was taken by Captain Pierce to the West Indies, 
instead of to the Bermudas, and disposed of at the island 
of Providence. 4 One Pequot seized near Block Island 
was sent to England. 5 

It is possible that this single cargo of women and children 

number of captives as eighty. This is evidently an error, for the sum 
of those whom he mentions as disposed of is eighty-three. Mason, 
op. cit., in Orr, op. cit., p. 39, gives the number of captives as one 
hundred and eighty. 

A division of the Indian captives among the allies would tend to 
draw them nearer to the English. It was for this reason, and because 
the Indians enslaved at the first division of captives persisted in run- 
ning away, that all the Indians of the second division were not en- 
slaved. The Indians distributed among the friendly Indians did not 
become their slaves. In the case of the Narraganset, Roger Williams 
informed Governor Winthrop, June, 1637, that they did not desire to 
use the Pequot as slaves, but preferred to treat them kindly, and grant 
them houses and lands. Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 
series 4, vi, p. 195. 

1 Winthrop, Journal, i, p. 225, in Original Narratives of Early Ameri- 
can History. 

2 Steiner, History of Slavery in Connecticut, p. 9, in Johns Hopkins 
University Studies, xi. 

' Morton, op. cit., 104; Massachusetts Historical Society Collections. 
series 4, iii, p. 360. In the Swamp Fight the Indians were attacked by 
the combined forces of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Hence the 
division of the captives between the two colonies. 

4 Winthrop, Journal, i, p. 260, in Original Narratives of Early Ameri- 
can History; Bradford, op. cit., p. 342, in Original Narratives of Early 
American History. 

5 Winthrop, Journal, i, p. 225, in Original Narratives of Early 
American History. 



^jj] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: WARFARE i 2 $ 

was not the only one sent to the islands at this time. A 
letter from the Company of Providence Islands, replying 
from London, July 3, 1638, to letters from authorities on 
the island, and directing that special care be taken of the 
" cannibal negroes brought from New England," * and a 
second letter written in 1639, when the company, fearing 
the danger that might arise from too large a number of 
negroes on the island, suggested that the negroes be sold 
or sent to New England or Virginia, 2 may possibly have 
been called forth by a further purchase of Indians, or by 
an exchange of negroes for them. 

By the time of King Philip's War, 1675-1676, the colon- 
ists were well accustomed to the sending of Indian captives 
out of the country, and to the use of them in their homes. 3 
The policy followed toward the Indians captured in this 
war was the same as that shown in the Pequot War. The 
captives were either exported for sale in the European or 
West Indian slave markets, or were retained in servitude 
in the colonies. In the beginning of the war. Captain 
Mosely captured eighty Indians, who were retained at 
Plymouth. In the following September, one hundred and 
seventy-eight were put on board a vessel commanded by 
Captain Sprague who sailed from Plymouth with them 
for Spain. 4 In this same year, 1675, Indians, probably 
from the coast of Maine, were landed as slaves at Fayal, 
one of the Azores. 5 Again in 1675, fifteen Indians were 

1 Calendar of State Papers, colonial series, i, 1574-1660, p. 278. 

* Ibid., i, p. 296. 

s Freeman, Civilisation and Barbarism, p. 64, declares that the en- 
slaving of Indians had become a mania with speculators. 

4 Williamson, The History of the State of Maine, etc., i, p. 531 ; 
Drake, The Book of the Indians, ninth edition, bk. iii, p. 40. 

'Drake's Note in Hubbard, A Narrative of the Indian Wars in New 
England, etc., ii, p. 94. 



I2 6 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [378 

captured and sent to Boston, " tied neck to neck, like galley 
slaves." Much against the will of the populace they were 
given a trial. All were finally acquitted except two who 
were sentenced to be sold out of the country as slaves. 1 
During the years 1675 and 1676, one finds mention of the 
sale of Indians in Plymouth in groups of about a hundred, 2 
fifty-seven, 3 three, 4 one hundred and sixty, 5 ten, 6 and one. T 
From June 25, 1675 to September 23, 1676, the records 
show the sale by the Plymouth colonial authorities of one 
hundred and eighty-eight Indians. 8 

In the Massachusetts Bay colony a similar disposal of 
captives was accomplished. On one occasion about two 
hundred were transported and sold. 9 There is extant a 
paper written by Daniel Gookin in 1676, one item of which 
is as follows : " a list of the Indian children that came in 
with John of Packachooge." The list shows twenty-one 
boys and eleven girls distributed throughout the colony. 10 

With the close of the war after Philip's death, many of 
the Indian chiefs were executed at Boston and Plymouth, 
and most of the remaining chiefs with their captive fol- 
lowers were sold and shipped off as slaves outside the 
colonies. 11 Those transported were carried to various parts : 

1 Bodge, Soldiers in King Philip's War, p. 209. 

* Plymouth Colony Records, v, p. 173. 3 Ibid., v, p. 174. 

* Felt, The Ecclesiastical flistory of New England, ii, p. 576. 
5 Baylies, Historical Memoir of New Plymouth, ii, pt. iii, pp. 47-4 

Church, The History of King Philip's War, Dexter edition, p. 147. 
fi Baylies, op. cit., ii, pt. iii, p. 75. 

7 Hough, A Narrative of the Causes which led to Philip's Indian 
War of 167 5- 1676, pp. 188-189. 

8 Plymouth Colony Records, v, p. 173; ix, p. 401. 

9 Hough, op. cit , p. 25 ; Felt, Annals of Salem, second edition, i, p. 507. 

10 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, viii, pp. 270-272. 

11 Hutchinson, The History of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, etc., 
i, p. 306. 



379] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: WARFARE l2 y 

the Spanish West Indies, Spain, Portugal, Bermuda, Vir- 
ginia, 1 and the Azores. 2 

Not all the Indians whose lives were spared were trans- 
ported. 3 Generally the men, rather than the women and 
children, were thus disposed of, though such was not al- 
ways the case. One finds instances, like that of Philip's wife 
and son, 4 when women and children were transported, and 
other instances when grown male Indians were retained in 
the colonies and sold to the colonists. 5 

Not only were the Indians who themselves engaged in 
the war sold as slaves at home and abroad, but the wives 
and children of the captive males were also seized and con- 

1 Ellis and Morris, King Philip's War, p. 287. 

2 Drake's Note in Hubbard, op. cit., ii, p. 94. These Indians 
did not sell well abroad, for doubtless former experience had 
proved their race to be unsatisfactory as slaves. In one instance, 
when no immediate market could be found, a number of them were 
left in the slave market of Algiers from which, by the efforts of 
John Eliot, they were enabled to return to America in 1683. Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society Collections, series 1, ii, p. 183. Of this 
incident Cotton Mather said : " Moreover, 'tis a prophecy in Deut. 
28 : 68, ' The Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the 
way whereof I spake unto thee. Thou shalt see it no more again; and 
there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bond- 
women, and no man shall buy you.' These did our Eliot imag'ne 
were sent to be sold in the coasts lying not very far from the coasts 
of Egypt, on the Mediterranean Sea, and scarce any chapman would 
offer to take them off." Magnolia, bk. iii, pt. 3. 

* Baylies, op. cit., ii, pt. iii, p. 190. 

* For a discussion of the treatment of Philip's wife and son, see 
Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, series 4, viii, p. 689. For 
the opinions of the two eminent divines to whom the matter of their 
disposal was referred before colonial action was taken, see Baylies, 
op. cit., ii, pt. iii, p. 190. 

5 Plymouth Colony Records, vi, p. 15. The Boston Book of Pos- 
sessions, p. 145 (quoted in Corey, The History of Maiden, p. 48), con- 
tains a proclamation issued by Governor Leverett, September 23, 1675, 
relating to the sale of seven male Indians to two colonists who were 
to transport and sell them anywhere they wished. 



I2 g INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [380 

signed to slavery. In 1677, the Massachusetts general court 
ordered that the Indian children, boys and girls, whose par- 
ents had been in hostility with the colony or had lived 
among its enemies in the time of the war, and who were 
taken by force and given or sold to any of the inhabitants 
of the colony, should be at the disposal of their masters or 
their assignees. 1 In the case of a certain Praying Indian, 
who withdrew from the English side and joined the Indian 
enemy, not only himself, but his wife and children were 
taken prisoners and held as slaves until redeemed by Eliot. 2 
The same policy was followed in Plymouth. A case in 
point is that of the chief, Popanooie, whose wife and chil- 
dren were retained in the colony as slaves, while he himself 
was transported and sold into slavery. 3 

Both Plymouth and Massachusetts made a distinction 
between the children of those Indian enemies who were 
taken by force, and those who voluntarily gave themselves 
up to the colonial authorities. The children of the latter 
were to serve as slaves only until twenty-four years of age. 
The term of service of the former was not specified. 4 

Neither Rhode Island nor Connecticut transported Indian 
slaves to the West Indies. Both colonies, however, retained 
Indian captives of King Philip's War, but only for limited 
periods of time, not for life. During the war numerous 
bands of the Indians surrendered to the English at Provi- 

1 Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massa- 
chusetts Bay in New England, v, p. 136. 

2 Gookin, History of the Christian Indians, in American Antiquarian 
Society Proceedings, 1836, ii, p. 449. 

* Plymouth Colony Records, v, p. 244. 

* Shurtleff, op. cit., v, p. 136; Plymouth Colony Records, v, pp. 207, 
223; vi, p. 15. The Plymouth general court required that the magis- 
trates who disposed of such Indian children according to the order 
of the court, should sign " indentures for such as are so disposed, to 
prevent further differences." Plymouth Colony Records, vi, p. 15. 



381] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: WARFARE l2 g 

dence and Newport. The sentiment of the colony against 
enslaving Indians, here, as in Connecticut, the result of 
Quaker influence, 1 had already been shown. So, in accord- 
ance with the spirit already expressed, it was voted by the 
town of Providence, August 14. 1676, to appoint a com- 
mittee of five persons to dispose of the Indians there." 
The town agreed to abide by the action of the five men. 3 
The committee decided to sell the Indians in the colony for 
a term of years; one-half the proceeds of the sale to go to 
the captors, and the other half to the public treasury. The 
length of service was to depend upon the Indians' ages. 
Those under five years were to be simple bondsmen till 
thirty; all above five years, and under ten, till thirty-eight; 
above ten and under fifteen, till twenty-seven; above fifteen 
and tinder twenty, till twenty-six; such as were above 
thirty, seven years. Several receipts signed by this com- 
mittee show that such sales occurred. 4 A few days before, 
the Rhode Island companies had brought in forty-two In- 

1 In 1676, as well as several years before and after, the government 
of Rhode Island was in the hands of the Quakers. Staples, Annals of 
Providence, p. 169. No organized effort against the system of slavery 
in general was made in Rhode Island until that of the Quakers, 1717. 
Weeden, Early Rhode Island, p. 188. 

* Rhode Island Historical Society Collections, v, p. 170; Rhode 
Island Historical Society Publications, new series, i, p. 234. This same 
town meeting freed certain Indians and gave them the rights of in- 
habitants, and sentenced others to be shot for crime. Early Records 
of Providence, viii, p. 12. These Indian captives were carried to the 
port in a vessel belonging to Providence Williams, son of Roger Wil- 
liams. Staples, op. cit., p. 172. 

1 Roger Williams was a member of this committee. 

* Rhode Island Historical Society Publications, i, pp. 236-238; Arnold, 
History of Rhode Island, i, p. 425. For examples of indentures or 
bills of sale, and receipts returned to the committee, see Early Records 
of the Town of Portsmouth, pp. 430-433 ; vol. 01087 of the Town Rec- 
ords of Providence. See Report of Record Commissioners on Provi- 
dence Tow'u Records. 



!30 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [382 

dian captives. These, and all other Indian prisoners held 
at the time, were sold into service in the colony for a 
period of nine years. 1 The Indians thus sentenced did not 
become actual slaves according to the strictest interpreta- 
tion of the term, since the persons who acquired them pur- 
chased only their services for a stated period of time, and 
not for life. Their condition is better explained by the 
term " involuntary indenture ". 

During King Philip's War Connecticut suffered noth- 
ing on its own soil from hostile Indians. In consequence 
the number of captive Indians enslaved was small, and only 
infrequent mention is found of these captives. A certain 
amount of the booty which the Connecticut troops as- 
sisted in taking fell to their lot, and among this booty were 
some of the captive Indians. An interesting record of such 
a slave is found in the account book of Major John Talcot 
(1674-1688) which includes his accounts as treasurer of 
the colony during King Philip's War. On opposite pages 
of the ledger occurs the following account (54-55) : "1676. 
Captain John Stanton of Stonington, Dr., to Sundry Com- 
missions given Captain Stanton to proceed against the In- 
dians by which he gained much on the sale of captives ". 
" Contra, 1677, April 30. Per received an Indian girl of 
him, about seven years old, which he gave me for commis- 
sions on the other side, or, at best, out of good will for any 
kindness to him ". 2 

In consequence of the small number of Indian captives 
enslaved in the colony, none was transported by colonial 
action. The privilege of thus getting rid of undesirable 
and troublesome Indian slaves by selling them out of the 

1 Richman, Rhode Island, its Making and its Meaning, ii, p. 192; 
Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 
in Neiv England, ii, p. 549. 

2 Orcutt, The History of the old Town of Derby, Connecticut, p. lvii. 



383] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: WARFARE ^ 

colony, was, however, conferred upon individual owners, 
when, May 10, 1677, the general court decreed: " for the 
prevention of those Indians running away, that are dis- 
posed in service by the Authority, that are of the enemy 
and have submitted to mercy, such Indians, if they be taken, 
shall be in the power of his master to dispose of him as a 
captive by transportation out of the country 'V 

During the Indian wars in Virginia Governor Berkeley 
himself in a letter, 1668, to Robert Smith, militia com- 
mander in the Rappahannock country, not only proposed 
that, with the consent of the council of war, a war of ex- 
tinction be waged against the northern Indians, but also 
suggested that the colonial government defray the expenses 
of the undertaking by the disposal of the women and chil- 
dren. 2 Smith submitted Governor Berkeley's letter to the 
Rappahannock court for approval. In rendering their de- 
cision, the justices declared that the conduct of the north- 
ern Indians, notably the " Doagges " and the neighboring 
Indians, justified the taking of severe measures against 
them ; and accordingly advised " with the assistance of 
Almighty God, by the strength of our northern part, ut- 
terly to eradicate [them], without further encroachment 
than the spoils of our enemies ". 3 

During Bacon's rebellion in 1676, the assembly at his 
instigation declared the enslavement of Indians for life to 
be legal, and made provision for granting captive Indians 
to soldiers as a partial inducement to volunteer. 4 This act 
was repealed by the general act setting aside all the acts of 
this assembly that sat in 1676 under the rule of Bacon. 5 

1 Connecticut Colonial Records, ii, p. 308. 
1 William and Mary College Quarterly, viii, p. 165. 
8 Ibid., viii, p. 165. 

4 Hening, The Statutes at Large, etc., ii, pp. 346, 404. 
1 Foote, Sketches of Virginia, Historical and Biographical, first edi- 
tion, p. 18. 



l T )2 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [384 

But it was again revived by the assembly of 1679 called by 
Deputy-Governor Chicheley. 1 Legal enslavement of In- 
dians was prohibited by implication rather than by the 
terms of the act of 1691. 2 But the North Carolina Indian 
troubles in November, 171 1, once more brought the old law 
forward, and captive Indians belonging to tribes at war 
with the English were directed to be transported and sold, 
those capturing them to have the money of the sale. 3 

It will be noted that, though in the case of Virginia, as 
in that of the other colonies, the disposal of the Indians 
captured in war was sanctioned by the colonial govern- 
ment, the action of the Virginia government in the matter 
ended with that sanction. By the acts of 1643 * and 1658/ 
the colony lost the right to possess servants. Therefore, 
the government during the Indian wars decreed that the 
captive Indians were the property of their captors who 
were entitled to the proceeds of their sale. 6 

In the case of Maryland is found another colony in 
which the government intended that Indian captives taken 
in war should be sold for the benefit of the colony. At the 
time of the Puritan ascendency the Indians began to be 
troublesome. 7 The Nanticoke of the Eastern shore began 
a war upon the settlers. March 29, 1652, on petition of the 
settlers, the general assembly attempted to pass a militia 
act. An expedition was planned, and a levy of troops 

1 Hening, op. cit., ii, pp. 404, 440; Virginia Magazine of History. 
ii, p. 173. This law is almost a literal transcript of Bacon's law. 

* Ballagh, A History of Slavery in Virginia, in lohns Hopkins Uni- 
versity Studies, extra volume xxiv, pp. 35, 50; Hening, op. cit.. ii, pp. 
346, 404- 

* Hening, op. cit., iv. p. 10. * Ibid., i, p. 259. 5 Ibid., i, p. 459. 

e Indians held in captivity before 1670 were not slaves but servants. 
See Chapter ix. 

7 Before that time, the Indians had given little or no trouble, and the 
colony had never passed a militia act. 



385] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: WARFARE ^3 

made. 1 The captive Indians were to be sold. But the 
government never had a chance to carry out any such 
sale, for the Puritans of Anne Arundel County refused to 
make their levies, and the expedition had to be abandoned. 2 

During the Tuscarora War in North Carolina, one again 
finds an instance of a colonial government taking possession 
of the captive Indians, selling them as slaves, and deposit- 
ing the proceeds of the sales in the colonial treasury. At 
the breaking out of the war Governor Hyde instructed the 
agents whom he sent to South Carolina to ask for military 
aid to represent to the colonial authorities there " the 
great advantage that may be made of slaves, there being 
many hundreds of them, women and children; may we not 
believe three or four thousand ". 3 The colony, indeed, 
found the disposal of the captives to be as profitable as had 
been hoped. The promised reward of slaves as pay for 
services rendered brought the desired Indian allies. On 
one occasion, Tom Blount, chief of a tribe of friendly In- 
dians in the area of disturbance, in making arrangements 
with the colonial government for an attack on a certain 
tribe, specified that his warriors receive payment in cap- 
tives, and failing these, in other commodities. 4 

The journals of the North Carolina council for June 25, 
1 71 3, show negotiations between acting Governor Pollock 
and the council for the purchase of a number of Indians for 
shipment to the West Indies. 5 It was sometimes a problem 

1 Every seventh man was to be pressed into service. William Fuller 
was appointed to command. 

a Allen, A Calendar of Maryland State Papers, i, p. 54. This ap- 
pears to have been the only attempt made by Maryland to enslave In- 
dian war captives. 

3 North Carolina Colonial Records, i, p. 900; ii, p. iv. 

4 Ibid., ii, p. 305. 

5 Ibid., ii, pp. iv, 52 ; Williamson, History of North Carolina, i, p. 289. 



I3 4 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [386 

to provide for the captured Indians; consequently in the 
same year the assembly chartered a private sloop to carry 
away captives brought by friendly Indians. 1 

In South Carolina, the Indian captives taken in the early 
war with the Kussoe were sold as slaves by governor and 
council with the sanction of the proprietors, who, though 
they had forbidden the enslavement of Indians in the tem- 
porary laws sent out to Governor Sayle in 1671, were 
nevertheless the first to grant the privilege of selling In- 
dian captives from Carolina to the West Indies, as the 
cheapest means of " encouraging the soldiers of the infant 
colony ". 2 Accordingly, when war broke out with the 
Stono Indians in 1680, Governor West, taking advantage 
of the precedent already established and the expressed sanc- 
tion of the proprietors for such an action, offered a price 
for every Indian that should be taken and brought to 
Charleston, 3 and obtained the funds he needed for defense 
by selling the Indians to the traders. 4 The plan proved 
successful, so successful, in fact, as to arouse the jealousy 
of the proprietors, for West appropriated some of the 
profits for his own benefit. The proprietors sanctioned 
the sale of Indians taken in actual warfare for the benefit 
of the colony, which meant for their own benefit. Their 
title to the colony rested upon the claims of England to 
this territory by right of conquest. 5 The Indians were the 
captives and the conquered people of that conquest. By 

1 North Carolina Colonial Records, ii, p. 45. 

1 Rivers, op. cit., p. 132. 

5 Lands were also given as reward for valor, but they were not ac- 
ceptable for the people had no laborers to work them. Hewat, op. cit.. 
i, P. 78. 

* Hewat, op .cit., i, p. 74. 

5 Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, Lewis edition, 
1898, i, p. 108. 



387] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: WARFARE ^5 

the rules of war the conquered people were at the mercy 
and disposal of the conquerors, and since the proprietors 
found more profit in selling than in killing the captive In- 
dians, they naturally resented West's taking their profits 
for other purposes. 

By the time of the wars in the early eighteenth century, 
the power of the proprietors was broken, and the assembly 
took charge of the matter of disposing of captives in war. 
An act passed September 10, 1702, provided that the In- 
dian slaves taken by the Yamasee and the other Indian 
allies on the expedition to St. Augustine in 1702, should 
be bought only, by a committee of four named by the as- 
sembly. The slaves would then be disposed of to help meet 
the expenses of the expedition. 1 But the committee ne- 
glected to carry out its instructions, and another act of 
May 8, 1703, provided that the slaves taken on the expedi- 
tion might be bought by anyone, and the Indian allies be 
thus encouraged. 2 

That all the Indian captives taken on the second expe- 
dition to St. Augustine in 1704 were not sold as slaves 
was due to an order of the assembly expressed through the 
governor. 3 Moore lamented this fact, as the plunder of 
his men, which he estimated should have been £100 to a 
man, would thus be much diminished. That he still hoped 
with the governor's assistance " to find a way to gratify 
them for the loss of blood ", may mean that he had not yet 
given up the idea of selling those Indian captives whom he 
called " free ". 4 

1 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, ii, pp. 189, 212. 

i Ibid., ii, p. 212. 

3 In 1703, Sir Nathaniel Johnson succeeded Moore as governor. 

* In a letter to the governor of South Carolina, May I, 1704, Moore 
states that he has taken all the people of three towns, and the greatest 
part of four more, and that he has with him thirteen hundred free 
Apalachee Indians and one hundred slaves. Carroll, op. cit., ii, pp. 
574-576. 



I3 6 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [388 

As a part of the preparation for self-defense made by 
South Carolina in 1707 and 1708, acts were passed giving 
the commanding officer of any expedition the power of 
commissioner to buy all prisoners of the Indian enemy 
above the age of twelve years that should be taken cap- 
tive by the white forces or the Indian allies. The slaves 
so bought were to be delivered to the public receiver, who 
was directed to pay for them not to exceed the sum of £7 
for every Indian, and then to ship them to the islands of 
the West Indies for sale, or to dispose of them within the 
colony for the use of the public to any person who would 
enter into bonds, with the penalty of £200, not to send or 
carry any slave so bought to any place within the province, 
or to the northward thereof. Any white person refusing 
to sell such slave to the commanding officer, must dispose 
or the slave himself, as before described, within the space 
of one month, or forfeit the same to the receiver for the 
use of the public, to be disposed of as aforesaid. 1 In 1715, 
however, the law was changed so as to read that all Indian 
enemies captured should be handed over to the public re- 
ceiver for the use of the public, the receiver to sell such as 
slaves to those who would pay the highest price, and who 
would promise to export them from the colony within the 
period of two months after the sale. 2 

During the French and Indian War, the Cherokee In- 
dians began hostilities with the English. North Carolina, 
in the provisions made in 1760 for raising troops against 
them, offered to anyone who took captive " an enemy In- 
dian " the right to hold him as a slave. 3 By the treaty con- 
cluded by South Carolina with the Cherokee at the close 
of the war. it was provided that the captives on each 

1 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, ii, pp. 322. 325. 

a Ibid., ii, p. 637. 

8 Martin, The Public Acts of the General Assembly of North Caro- 



389] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: WARFARE i$ 7 

side should be given up. The North Carolinians, how- 
ever, followed the policy advocated in 1760, and the In- 
dians accordingly retaliated by carrying off two white girls 
from South Carolina to Pensacola, and demanded, before 
releasing them, that those of their own people held in cap- 
tivity should first be given up. 1 

In both of the New England Indian wars discussed, the 
disposal of the captives fell under the immediate juris- 
diction of the respective colonial governments, and was 
carried on either by the general court, as in the case of 
Massachusetts, or by a council of war which was a com- 
mittee of the general court, as in the case of Plymouth. 
Though during the Pequot War Connecticut sent no 
Indians to the West Indies, still it was customary for the 
government to sell them out of the colony during the period 
following the war. This appears from a law passed in 
1656 by the general court, forbidding such sale outside the 
boundaries of " the other three colonies ", without the con- 
sent of the authorities of the plantation " under the penalty 
of £10 for each default ". 2 

The attitude of the New England colonial governments, 

Una, etc., edition of 1804. p. 135. If such an Indian should be killed, 
the captor was to secure £10 from the public treasury. This amount 
was probably less than the regular price of such slaves, for if the 
amount were equal to the full value, the captor would have been 
tempted to kill the caplive, and thus avoid the trouble of keeping him. 
Bassett, Slavery and Servitude in the Colony of North Carolina, p. 
73, in Johns Hopkins University Studies, xiv. 

1 North Carolina Colonial Records, xiii, pp. 204-205, contains a letter 
of President Lowndes of South Carolina to Governor Caswell of 
North Carolina, August 6, 1778, concerning the adjustment of th : s 
matter. As late as 1776 Cherokee prisoners of war were sold to the 
highest bidder in South Carolina, Nineteenth Annual Report of the 
Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 223; Basset, op. cit., p. 73, in Johns 
Hopkins University Studies, xiv. 

2 Hoadly, Records of the Colony or Jurisdiction of New Haven, 
from May, 1653, to the Union, etc.. p. 177. 



!38 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [390 

so definitely expressed during the Pequot War, was con- 
tinually shown from that time until King Philip's War. 
During that period, 1636-1675, New England was the 
scene of constant intertribal Indian difficulties between the 
Mohegan and Narraganset tribes. Because of the danger 
resulting from these disturbances, Massachusetts Bay, Ply- 
mouth, Connecticut and New Haven entered into confed- 
eration for mutual defense, under the name of the United 
Colonies of New England. The articles containing the 
terms of the intercolonial agreement, drawn up May 19, 
1643, expressed the same spirit that was shown during the 
Pequot War, for they provided that " the whole advantage 
of the war . . . , whether it be in lands, goods or persons, 
shall be proportionally divided among the said confed- 
erates 'V 

Continued disturbances led the commissioners of the 
United Colonies to prepare for a campaign against the 
Narraganset Indians in 1645. Captain John Mason was 
put in command of the forces raised. In keeping with the 
provision of the articles already mentioned, his commis- 
sion, dated July, 1645, concluded thus: "what booty you 
take or prisoners, whether men, women or children, you 
may send to Seabrook fort, to be kept and improved for 
the advantage of the colonies in several proportions an- 
swering to their charges, etc." 2 

During King Philip's War the various New England 
governments, with Massachusetts and Plymouth in the 
lead, again took charge of the disposal of the captive In- 
dians. Various methods were adopted to convert their 
Indian captives into a source of immediate revenue. One 
was to sell them outright outside of the colonies, or. on 
occasion, within the colonies, and thus replenish the ex- 

1 Plymouth Colony Records, ix, p. 4. i Ibid., ix, p. 35. 



3QI ] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: WARFARE i$g 

chequer, and, so far as might be, defray the expenses of 
the war. At a meeting of the Plymouth Court in 1676 to 
consider the disposal of more than a hundred captives, the 
conclusion was reached, " upon serious and deliberate con- 
sideration and agitation " concerning them, " to sell the 
greater number into servitude ". 1 A little later, in the 
same year, several more were sold. 2 In each case the 
colonial treasurer was ordered to effect the sale for the 
benefit of the colony. A fiscal report of Plymouth for the 
period from June 25, 1675, to September 23, 1676, gives 
among the credits the following, which relates to the sale 
of the one hundred and eighty-eight Indians already men- 
tioned : " By the following accounts, received in. or as 
silver, viz. : captives, for 188 prisoners at war sold, £397 
13s." s 

Records of similar events are found in Massachusetts 
Bay. On November 4, 1676, the magistrates and depu- 
ties adopted a report of a committee of the general court 
providing for the selling abroad of several Indians.* 
Again, on September 16, 1676, the general court passed an 
act for handing over the disposal of certain captured In- 
dians to the council. The general court expressed the 
opinion that such of them as had shed English blood should 
suffer death. The inference concerning the remainder is 
that they were to be sold. 5 

A second method of paying debts by the use of captives 
was to direct the treasurer of the colony to dispose of a 
certain number of Indians, and turn the proceeds to the 
account of a certain individual in whose debt the colony 
stood ; or to give a certain number of Indians to such a 

1 Plymouth Colony Records, v, p. 173. 2 Ibid., v, p. 174. 

s Ibid., v, p. 173; ix, p. 401. * Ibid., xi, p. 242. 

5 Shurtleff, op. cit., v, p. 115. 



I4 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [392 

person, usually with the stipulation that the Indians be at 
once sold out of the colony. An instance of the first kind 
occurred in Plymouth, October 4, 1675, when the general 
court voted with " reference to such emergent charges 
that have fallen on our honored governor, the summer past, 
the court have settled and conferred on him, the price of 
ten Indians of those savages lately transported out of the 
government "- 1 The second method is illustrated by 
a later act of the Plymouth court, August 24, 1676, 
when, along with ten Indians ordered by the court to 
be delivered to Captain Benjamin Church and Captain 
Anthony Low for transportation out of the colony, one 
Indian was ordered " to be at the disposal of Henry Lilly, 
which he receives in full satisfaction for his attendance at 
this court ". This Indian, like the others, was to be trans- 
ported. 2 How far the receipts from the sale of captives 
went toward meeting the expenses of the colony is not 
known. It must, however, have been but a short way, if 
one is to judge by the condition of the colonial exchequer 
at the time and the expedients adopted by the colonial gov- 
ernment to obtain money to defend the frontiers and meet 
the other expenses of war. 3 

1 Baylies, op. cit., ii, pt. iii, p. 75. 

2 Hough, op. cit., pp. 188-189. It is to be noted that none of the 
Indians transported were allowed to return to the colonies. This 
same court, on rumors of Indians landing near the coast of Rhode 
Island, forbade the landing of any Indian on the shores of Rhode 
Island or Narragansett Bay. Hough, op. cit., p. 189. 

3 See Sylvester, op. cit., ii, p. 457, for expedients adopted by Massa- 
chusetts to obtain money to defend the frontiers. Yet the number 
killed and sold, along with those who escaped, practically destroyed 
the warring Indians. According to the Massachusetts Records of 
1676-1677 a day was set apart for public thanksgiving, because, 
among o'her things of moment, "there now scarce remains a name 
or family of them (the Indians) but are either slain, captivated or 
fled." 



393] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: WARFARE I4I 

Still a third way was to grant the captured Indians di- 
rectly to those who took them prisoners, as a bounty for 
their capture. The Massachusetts act of 1695, which, along 
with the rewards for killing Indians, 1 conferred on the sol- 
diers for their own use all plunder and provisions taken from 
the enemy, appears to have been the earliest relinquishment 
by the provincial government of its sovereign right to 
prisoners and captives. 2 In the later laws liberal premiums 
were continued for scalps, and volunteer captors of Indians 
were, by the law of 1706, granted the benefit of captives 
and plunder. 3 A law of 1703 provided that the governor 
and council, in the absence of the general assembly, pos- 
sessed the power to pay for Indian captives under ten years 

1 Both Plymouth and Massachusetts, by encouraging, as a part of the 
war policy, the capture of Indians alive, through legalizing such cap- 
ture or granting a specified reward for each captive, unintentionally 
increased the number of Indian captives that could be sold. In a 
declaration issued by the New England commissioners at the begin- 
ning of the war, it was declared " lawful for any person, whether 
English or Indian, that shall find any Indians traveling or skulking in 
any of the towns or roads (within specified limits), to command them 
under their guard and examination, or to kill them as they may or 
can." To this direction was added : "The council hereby declaring, that 
it will be most acceptable to them that none be killed or wounded that 
are willing to surrender themselves into custody." Halkett, Historical 
Notes respecting the Indians of North America, p. 135. 

In the eastern campaign Massachusetts offered twenty shillings 
bounty for every Indian scalp, and forty shillings for every prisoner. 
The individual towns sometimes took similar action. For instance, the 
people of Monhegan publicly offered a bounty of £$ for every Indian 
that should be brought in. In 1694, Massachusetts decreed that vol- 
unteers were to have for every Indian, great or small, which they 
should kill or bring in prisoner, £50, as well as all plunder. Soldiers 
under pay were to receive, over and above pay, £10. In 1695, £25 was 
decreed as the reward for any Indian woman or young person under 
fourteen years of age. Acts and Resolves, i, pp. 176, 211, 292. 

1 Historical Magazine, x, p. 188. 

3 Douglas, A Summary, Historical and Political, etc.. i, p. 557. 



I4 2 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [394 

old the sum of £3, and stated that they could use the In- 
dians thus obtained, either for the redemption of English 
captives among the Indians, or else they could sell them 
across the sea. 1 Another law of the same year granted the 
regular forces the benefit of the sale of all Indian pris- 
oners under the age of ten years taken by them to be trans- 
ported out of the country, the profits of the sale to be shared 
among the officers and men of the company engaged, pro- 
portionally to their wages. All volunteers were, likewise, 
to have the benefit of all Indian prisoners under the age of 
ten years by them taken. 2 By such legal action Massa- 
chusetts was in reality putting a premium on slave catching. 
The colonial governments not only sold the Indian cap- 
tives themselves, but sometimes authorized their military 
commanders so to do. On January 15, 1676, the governor 
of Massachusetts issued instructions to Captain Benjamin 
Church to go against the Indians, and to distribute among 
his men the plunder and captives according to such agree- 
ment as captain and company might make. The instruc- 
tions read : " And it shall be lawful, and is hereby war- 
ranted, for him to make sale of such prisoners as their 
perpetual slaves ; or otherwise to retain them, as they think 
meet (they being such as the law allows to be kept)". 3 On 
August 28, 1676, also, the governor of Plymouth wrote 
to the governor of Rhode Island that Captain Church had 
been chosen and authorized by Plymouth " to demand and 
receive of the governor of Rhode Island " all the captive 
Indians, and to guard and conduct them to Plymouth, or to 
sell and dispose of them, as he chose, to the " inhabitants or 

1 Acts and Resolves, viii, p. 45. 

a Ibid., i, 530. 

' Church, op. cit., Dexter edition, i, p. 189. For the successful ex- 
pedition of Church in wh'ch he captured 126 Indians, see Sylvester, 
Indian Wars of New England, ii, p. 326. 



395] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: WARFARE 143 

others for terms of life, or for shorter times, as there may 
be reasons 'V 

No exception to this custom of enslavement was made m 
the case of the Praying Indians. During the course of the 
war several of these Indians, " through the harsh dealings 
of the English ", and because of neglect to provide them 
with " sufficient shelter, protection and encouragement ", 
joined the warring Indians. 2 Such of these Indians as 
were taken in arms were declared by the Massachusetts 
general court to be in rebellion, and were tried and sen- 
tenced, some to be killed, but the most of them to be trans- 
ported and sold as slaves. 3 

Captives were also retained as slaves in the colony, es- 
pecially the women and children. For instance, in 1675, 
in return for the privilege granted by Mr. Shrimpton of 
Noddle's Island to quarter one hundred Indians upon that 
island free of charge, the general court of Massachusetts 
ordered five Christian Indian prisoners to be delivered to 

1 This last phrase related to a decree of the Plymouth Council of 
War, in turn confirmed by the Court, July 23, 1676. Hough, op. cit., 
pp. 187-189. The bill of sale of one of the Indian women to Adam 
Right of Duxbury bears the signature of Church. Weeden, Early 
Rhode Island, a Social History of the People, p. 178. 

* Gookin, op. cit., in American Antiquarian Society Collections, ii, 
1836, p. 449. One of the arguments used by the warring Indians to 
persuade the Praying Indians to join with them, was that the English 
proposed to destroy all the Praying Indians, or sell them out of the 
country as slaves. Ibid., pp. 462, 476. The feeling against the Pray'ng 
Indians was so strong that a council in Boston, August 30, 1675, dis- 
banded them, and distributed them among five of their own villages. 
Gookin, op. cit., in American Antiquarian Society Collections, ii, 1836, 
p. 450. Most of the Indians were sent to Deer Island. Some of them 
were transported before harves's were gathered, and the government 
neglected to provide them with sufficient food, clothes and shelter. 
Ibid., ii, 1836, p. 433 et seq. 

8 Belknap, The History of Nezv Hampshire, i, p. 245. 



144 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [396 

him to be employed on Noddle's Island, " he returning 
them to the order of the council ".* 

It is very probable, as Gookin asserts, that instances are 
not lacking in which some of the Praying Indians were sold 
as slaves under accusations which were false. 2 Such hap- 
pened also in the case of other Indians. Their promises 
were not considered sincere by the colonial authorities, for 
a result of the war was an intense hatred and suspicion of 
all Indians. 3 The Praying Indians were sufficiently numer- 
ous to be a dangerous factor, and the colonial authorities 
intended to give them no chance to gain the advantage. 4 

Whatever may have been the number of enslaved In- 
dian captives retained in Massachusetts, that number was 
sufficiently large to cause some uneasiness on the part of 
both authorities and people. On July 22, 1676, the general 
court of Plymouth confirmed an act of the council of war 
declaring that, because of the danger to the peace and 
safety of the colony incurred by having Indian captives re- 

1 Sumner, A History of East Boston, etc., p. 197. 

8 Gookin, op. cit., in American Antiquarian Society Collections, 1836, 
ii, P. 449- 

8 Some of the Praying Indians fought on the English side. It was 
reported among the Indians that these Christian Indians never shot at 
their Indian opponents, but into the tops of trees, and that they sold 
to Phipp's agents the ammunition provided them. Massachusetts His- 
torical Society Collections, series 5, i, p. 106. 

* It is estimated that there were probably between 30,000 and 40,000 
white inhabitants in the United Colonies at the time of King Philip's 
War, and that of these, 6,000 to 8,000 were able to bear arms. Mather, 
A Brief History of the War with the Indians of New England, p. xxix. 
No estimate of the number of Praying Indians at the time of the war 
seems available. Palfrey, A Compendious History of New England 
from the Discovery by Europeans, etc., ii, p. 124, states their number, 
when at the highest, as 4,000. In 1685, Mr. Hinckley, governor of 
Plymouth, estimated them at 1,439, not counting children under twelve 
years of age. Hutchinson, The History of the Colony of Massachu- 
setts, i, p. 349. 



397] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: WARFARE 145 

siding there, no male captive above the age of fourteen 
years of age should reside in the colony ; and that, if any 
such captive above that age was then resident in the colony, 
he was to be disposed of out of the colony before October 
15, 1676, or be forfeited to the government. 1 It is not 
likely that the act was rigorously enforced during its brief 
existence. Exceptions to the law were doubtless made by 
the court from time to time. 2 

Another act of similar tenor was passed March 29, 1677, 
when the Massachusetts council in an order, the preamble 
of which shows much alarm on the part of the people, de- 
creed that no one within the colony should thereafter buy 
or keep, more than ten days after the publication of the 
council's decree, any Indian men or women already bought, 
above the age of twelve years, without allowance from 
authority. A fine of £5, and the forfeit of the Indian or 
Indians concerned were fixed as a penalty for violation of 
the law. 3 Toward the end of the year Plymouth still 

1 Plymouth Colony Records, v, pp. 173-174; xii, p. 242; Baylies, 
op. cit., ii, pt. iii, p. 188. 

J Church, op. cit.. Dexter edition, i, p. 182, mentions the sale of an 
old Indian named " Conscience " to a native of Swanzey. Perhaps an 
exception was made in the case of this Indian, because of age. An- 
other exception appears to have been made by the Plymouth Court, 
September 1, 1676, when Sergeant Rogers was allowed to keep his 
Indian man at his own house, provided he should produce the said 
Indian on demand of the court. Hough, op. cit., p. 186. Still another 
exception was made by the Plymouth Court at the same session grant- 
ing Church the right to "some five or six Indians," who, if their be- 
havior was satisfactory, might remain in the colony and not be sold 
to foreign parts unless any of them should be proved to have mur- 
dered any of the English. One Indian named " Crossman " was 
especially mentioned, as he had been accused of murdering Mr. Heze- 
kiah Willet. Plymouth Colony Records, xi, p. 242; Baylies, op. cit., ii, 
pt. iii, p. 188. 

3 Pamphlet published in Cambridge in 1677, now in possession of 
the Boston Athenaeum. The full text is as follows : 

"At a court held at Boston in New England, the 29th of March, 



I4 6 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [398 

further extended governmental supervision of captives by 
decreeing, March 5, 1678, that no one was to buy the chil- 
dren of the captive Indians taken during the late war, 
" without special leave, liking and approbation of the gov- 
ernment of this jurisdiction 'V 

The seizure of Indians by authority of the colonial gov- 
ernments, and their subsequent sale, were not always above 
suspicion. At the time of the Narraganset troubles, in 
1646, Plymouth gave legal sanction for the seizure of 
peaceable and unsuspecting Indians whose tribes were at 
peace with the English. 2 A second instance of the same 
character occurred during King Philip's War shortly after 
the destruction of Dartmouth in 1675. The Dartmouth 
Indians had not been concerned in the burning of the town, 
so the whites entered into negotiations of peace and friend- 
ship with them, and the captains of the resident militia and 
the Plymouth forces sent thither promised them protection. 
But through other influences they were conducted to Ply- 
mouth, and, by order of the council, August 4, 1675, they 
were sold and "transported out of the Country, being about 
Eight-score Persons ". 3 On September 2, 1675, the council 

1677. The council being informed that certain strange Indians, who 
have been in Hostility against us, or have lived amongst such, are 
brought into this Jurisdiction, and bought by several persons, which 
causeth much trouble and fear to the Inhabitants where they reside, 
and may be of dangerous consequence, not only to the Towns where 
they live, but to the whole Jurisdiction, if not timely prevented : 

" It is therefore Ordered that what person soever within this Juris- 
diction shall hereafter buy or keep above ten days after the publica- 
tion hereof, any such Ind'an, man or woman already bought, above 
the age of twelve years, wi hout allowance from authority, shall be- 
sides the forfeit of such Indian or Indians, pay the fine of five pounds 
to the Treasurer of the Country, and the Constables of the several 
towns are ordered forthwith to publish this Order in {heir Precincts. 
By the Council, Edward Rawson, Seer." 

1 Plymouth Colony Records, v, p. 253. -Ibid., ix, p. 71. 

s Sylvester, op. cit., ii, p. 259; Plymouth Co'ony Rcrords, v, p. 173. 
This action was opposed by Church, but without result. 



399] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: WARFARE I47 

took similar action in the case of " a parcel of Indians 
lately come into Sandwich, in a submissive way to this col- 
ony ". They were adjudged to be " in the same condition 
of rebellion ", and were condemned, fifty-seven in number, 
to perpetual servitude. 1 

A fourth, and far more notable instance of bad faith on 
the part of the English, occurred at Cocheco (Dover, New 
Hampshire) during the Indian difficulties in that section, 
contemporaneous with and following King Philip's War. 
Major Waldron was in command of the local garrison, 
and had gathered about him four hundred Indians, about 
two hundred of whom were refugees who had fled there 
for protection after the death of King Philip, which Wal- 
dron had promised them. The depredations of the An- 
droscoggin Indians at Casco and the devastation of the 
settlements on the Kennebec caused the Massachusetts gov- 
ernment to send a military force into that locality, with 
orders to seize all southern Indians wherever they could 
find them. In obedience to this order the leaders of the 
Massachusetts troops wished to seize the Indians at once, 
but Waldron hesitated to break his promise and proposed 
a stratagem to avoid disastrous results. His suggestion 
was followed, and all the Indians were disarmed and made 
prisoners, September 7, 1676. The " strange Indians ", 
or those who had come from the south, two hundred in 
number, were retained and sent to Boston. Seven or eight 
who were convicted of having shed English blood were 
condemned to death; the rest were sold into slavery in 
foreign parts. 2 

1 Sylvester, op. cit., ii, p. 259; Plymouth Colony Records, v, p. 174. 
Church, op. cit., Dexter edition, i, p. 46. 

2 Belknap, The History of New Hampshire, i, pp. 143, 245 ; New 
Hampshire Provincial Papers, i, p. 357; Williamson, The History of 
the State of Maine, i, p. 539 ; Sylvester, op. cit., ii, pp. 339-340 ; Shurt- 



I4 8 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [400 

Toward the close of the war orders were given by cer- 
tain of the New England colonies to the constables to seize 
all Indians remaining in the colonies after a specific date. 
All who had been concerned in the death of a colonist or 
the destruction of property were to be summarily executed. 
Those who remained friendly or had finally assisted the 
English, were allowed to retain their lands and continue 
their regular life. The others were to be sold by the treas- 
urers of the various colonies for the benefit of their re- 
spective governments. 1 

The locating of those Indians that remained after the 
war, and the necessity of maintaining order, resulted, 
1677, in the government of Massachusetts settling the 
groups of Indians, Praying as well as unconverted, in var- 
ious localities, and the distribution of some to " remain as 
servants in English families " where they were to be taught 
and instructed in the Christian religion. Both the captive 
male Indians and their families were held as slaves. Massa- 
chusetts and Plymouth limited the time of servitude of the 
children of " friendly Indians ", or those who surrendered 
and assisted the English, to the time when they should be- 

leff, op. cit., v, p. 115. Hubbard and Mather barely mention this affair. 
Hubbard, op. cit., pt. ii, p. 28; Mather, Magnolia, bk. 7, ch. 6. Wil- 
liamson states that the propriety of the event was a " subject which 
divided the whole community; some applauded, some doubted, some 
censured, but the government approved." 

1 Ellis and Morris, King Philip's War, p. 287; Baylies, op. cit., ii, 
pt. iii, p. 190. In at least one instance, provision against their being 
sold as slaves was made by the Indians in the terms of their surren- 
der. When the squaw-sachem, Awanthonks, deserted the cause of 
Philip and allied herself with the English, she obtained a promise 
from the Plymouth government " that the life of every man, woman 
and child shall be spared, and none shall ever be sold as slaves, or 
transported from their native soil." Hough, op. cit., p. 20; Drake, The 
Book of the Indians, ninth edition, p. 252; Freeman, Civilisation and 
Barbarism, p. 129. 



4 Oi] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: WARFARE 149 

come twenty-four years of age. 1 The time of service of the 
children of the warring Indians was not so limited. 

Since King Philip's War was never carried into Con- 
necticut territory, the problem of disposing of Indian 
captives never assumed the same importance there as 
in Massachusetts, and the Connecticut government did 
not export its captive Indians. On October 23, 1676, 
as a measure intended to induce the surrender of the 
warring tribes and so hasten the conclusion of the 
war, the general court ordered that all Indians who 
surrendered before January 1, 1677, should not be 
sold out of the country as slaves. The measure, how- 
ever, permitted their use as temporary slaves in the 
colony. They were to receive good usage in the service 
of those to whom the council might dispose of them, and 
after ten years, all over sixteen years of age, on cer- 
tificate of good behavior from their masters regarding 
their good service during that period, were to have their 
liberty and be allowed to dwell in the colony and work for 
themselves, provided they observed English law. If the 
master should refuse such certificate, then the Indian could 
apply to the authorities and have his case decided. The 
council was given power to lengthen the term of servitude 
if it should see cause, but could not shorten it. All In- 
dians under sixteen years of age were to serve until twenty- 
six years of age. 2 

At a meeting, November 24, 1676, the Connecticut coun- 
cil decided upon its method of procedure. A committee 
was appointed to meet at Norwich on the second Wednes- 
day of the following December to " dispose and settle all 

1 Shurtleff, op. cit., v, p. 136; Plymouth Colony Records, v, pp. 207, 
223. 

2 Connecticut Colonial Records, :i, 1665-1677, pp. 297-298. Indians 
convicted of having murdered any of the English were to be put to 
death, as in Massachusetts and Plymouth. 



i-O INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [402 

surrenders according to order ". All Indians expecting to 
have the benefit of the declaration must then and there ap- 
pear. After that time all those who had shown hostility 
to the English were excluded from the privilege and 
were to be dealt with as enemies, as were also those who 
should hide or harbor them. The notice of the council's 
action was to be sent among the various Indians of the 
colony. The instructions of the committee appointed di- 
rected them, among other things, to take all young and 
single persons of all sorts to put into English families to 
be apprentices for ten years. After that they were to be 
returned to their parents on proof of their own and their 
parents' fidelity. Otherwise they were to be sold into slav- 
ery. The general court appointed certain persons in each 
county to receive and distribute these Indian children pro- 
portionally, and to see that they were sold to good families. 
Those counties which had already had some share of the 
surrendered Indians and captives or which had too many 
Indians already, were not to receive as many as the other 
counties. 1 

The Rhode Island authorities also limited the bondage of 
Indians to a period of years. On May 18, 1652, the colony 
passed a law " that no black mankind or white " should be 
" forced by covenant, bond or otherwise, to serve any man 
or his assignees longer than ten years, or until they became 
twenty- four years of age, if they be taken in under four- 
teen, from the time of their coming within the limits of the 
colony; and at the end of the term of ten years, they were 
to be set free, " as the manner is with English servants " 2 

1 Connecticut Colonial Records, ii, 1665-1677, pp. 481-482. At this 
meeting the council granted liberty to ten Indians who had been cap- 
tured in a swamp where they had hidden. 

-Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 
in New England, i, p. 243 ; Richman, Rhode Island, its Making and its 
Meaning," ii, p. 192. 



4 03] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: WARFARE 1 § 1 

Either the framers of the law intended that Indians be in- 
cluded under the terms " black mankind or white ", or else 
the subject of Indian slavery had not yet attracted the atten- 
tion of the law makers at this time. Probably the latter 
is the true explanation of the omission of the term " In- 
dian " from the act, though at a later time the same re- 
striction of service was applied to Indians without legisla- 
tion. 

On March 13, 1676, the general assembly convened at 
Newport and discussed the Indian situation. An order 
was given that " no Indian in this colony shall be a slave ", 
save only for debts, covenant, etc., " as if they had been 
countrymen not at war ". x But Rhode Island did not avail 
itself of every opportunity to retain captive Indians. On 
one occasion the assembly voted, June 30, 1676, to send 
back to Plymouth a number of Indians whom Roger 
Williams had sent there, because they believed the Indians 
rightly belonged to the northern colony. 2 Again, on August 
23, 1676, the government held a court martial for the 
trial of some Indians whom the Rhode Island troops had 
captured. Several of these Indians were sentenced to death 
for crimes against the English. Others were freed. None 
was retained in the colony. 3 

The assembly made an earnest effort to prevent the in- 
discriminate and unfair sale of Indians not taking part in 
the war, by forbidding during its session in August, 1676, 

1 Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Planta- 
tions, ii, p. 534. 

* " Because it is said they were left as hostages to the English force 
of the United Colonies." Hough, op. cit., p. 186. 

* Action was taken in accordance with the powers granted in the 
charter " to exercise the law martial in such cases as occasions shall 
necessarily require, and upon just cause, to invade and destroy the 
native Indians and other enemies of the said colony." Hough, op. cit., 
p. 173 et seq. 



I5 2 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [404 

that any Indians be brought into the colony without per- 
mission of the governor and two assistants, under penalty 
of a fine of £5 and the forfeit of such Indian or Indians. 
The sum of the fine and the forfeited Indians were " to 
return to the treasurer of each town ". All persons were 
declared to be entitled to half the produce of the Indians 
whom they might legally bring to Newport. The other 
half was to go to the treasury. If such an amount was not 
paid in, the said Indians were to be forfeited to the treas- 
urer of the colony. It was also forbidden to carry any 
Indian away from the colony without a permit from the 
governor, deputy-governor or two magistrates, upon pen- 
alty of the forfeiture of £5. All acts, orders, commis- 
sions, verbal orders, etc., which had been issued by town 
councils, councils of war, private orders of officers and 
" other ministers of justice ", which related to Indians, 
were declared legal by the assembly. 1 

Such action as that referred to in this measure was taken 
at a town meeting in Portsmouth, March 8, 1675. The 
meeting, fearing that the holding of Indian slaves might 
prove " prejudicial ", ordered that all persons of the town 
having any Indian slave of either sex should be given but 
one month to sell and send such out of the town, and that 
no inhabitant after that time should buy or keep an Indian 
slave under penalty of £5 fine for each month thus holding 
such a slave, the amount of the fine to be paid to the town 
treasurer. 2 

1 Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Planta- 
tions, ii, pp. 549-551. 

* Early Records of the Tozvn of Portsmouth, p. 188. Rhode Island 
was accustomed to sell both whites and Indians into temporary servi- 
tude as punishment for crime. The Indians here mentioned were 
probably examples of such cases. See Rhode Island Tracts, No. 18, 
p. 131. The towns appears to have reversed its policy later. See 
Weeden, Early Rhode Island, etc., p. 178. 



405] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: WARFARE T33 

It was politic for the colonial governments to oppose the enslave- 
ment of Indians who were friendly to the English or in alliance with 
them. Two such instances are recorded in connection with North 
Carolina. In 1713, at the request of the governor of New York, the 
Seneca Indians sent an Indian to the Tuscarora to caution them 
against going to war with the English. The South Carolina Indians 
captured this Indian and held him as a slave. The council decided 
to buy him and send him back to his own nation. North Carolina 
Colonial Records, ii, pp. 1-2. In the same year the council ordered 
that a colonist who had sold a friendly Indian as a slave should be 
held for trial. Ibid., ii, p. 55. 

During the intercolonial wars the French Indians were accustomed 
to take both their white and red captives to Canada, where the latter 
became slaves. As a part of their protective, diplomatic and military 
policy, the English sought to regain the freedom of these Indians, 
and thus retain the friendship of the Six Nations. In 1688, Governor 
Dongan demanded of the French agents that certain New York In- 
dians who had been sent from Canada to France, be returned to the 
English consul at Paris or to the authorities in London, so that they 
might be brought home and be given their freedom. New York Colo- 
nial Documents, iii, p. 526. The French authorities agreed, and the 
Indians were brought back. Ibid., iii, pp. 621, 732, 733. In 1748, Gov- 
ernor Shirley sought to obtain the freedom of a Rhode Island Indian 
who had been sold as a slave in Canada, and on another occasion sent 
fourteen French prisoners to South Carolina to redeem certain mem- 
bers of the Six Nations who were held there. Ibid., vi, p. 448. 
Throughout the French and Indian struggle the governors of New 
York insisted that the members of the Six Nations, when captured in 
war, should be treated exactly as other English subjects, or, in other 
words, that they should not be enslaved. 



CHAPTER VI 

Processes of Enslavement : Kidnapping 

The process of obtaining Indians by kidnapping was 
common to the early English explorers in America, as well 
as to those of Spain and France. In 1498, the expedition 
of Sebastian Cabot brought back to England three natives 
from the New World. 1 Lord Bacon states that two of the 
Indians " were seen two years afterward, dressed like 
Englishmen, and not to be distinguished from them ", 3 
The Cabots had set off, promising to bring home heavy 
cargoes of spices and oriental gems. They returned with 
empty ships and with nothing to relate concerning the 
sought-for land of Cathay. Their expedition had not 
reached its desired destination, but some of the natives 
would serve as proof of another land discovered, and 
would, perhaps, provoke sufficient interest to assure the 
fitting out of a second expedition. 3 These Indians were 
not destined for the slave markets, and were probably kept 
as curiosities. 

1 Hakluyt Society Publications, vii, p. 23; Beazley, John and Sebastian 
Cabot, p. 118. 

2 Beazley, op. cit., p. 118. 

3 Historians differ regarding the place where these Indians were 
captured. J. G. Kohl, in A History of the Discovery of the East 
Coast of North America, reprinted in Maine Historical Society Col- 
lections, series 2, i, p. 142, expresses the opinion that Cabot probably 
obtained them on some shore south of New York harbor. James S. 
Buckingham, in Canada, Nova Scotia, etc, pp. 168, 337; and Samuel 
G. Drake, in The History and Antiquities of Boston, i, p. 1, regard 
Newfoundland as the probable home of the savages. 

154 [406 



4 C7] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: KIDNAPPING 155 

England still hoped to find the northwest passage to the 
Orient. In 1576, Frobisher made another attempt in that 
direction. He desired to take away some token as proof 
of his having been in the New World, and, as it was sup- 
posed the Indians had destroyed or stolen three of his men 
who were lost, he decided to take some savages captive by 
luring them to trade. In this way one was captured, but 
died on reaching England. 1 A similar instance occurred 
on the second voyage in 1577. Frobisher planned to seize 
several Indians, bestow gifts upon them, and send them 
to their own people, hoping thus to win the friendship of 
the natives, after keeping one of them as interpreter. An 
attempt was made to seize two, but one escaped. x\s a 
companion for this man, an Indian woman was afterward 
captured. Frobisher attempted to trade these captives for 
some lost Englishmen, but was unsuccessful; 2 so it is 
probable that they were carried to England. The relation 
of the third voyage, 1578, mentions a similar man and 
woman, but the narrator does not state whether these were 
the same two taken on the second voyage, carried to Eng- 
land, and brought back to America on the third voyage, or 
two others taken on the third voyage. These Indians pro- 
voked much curiosity and comment in England, and pic- 
tures of them were made for the queen and others. 3 

The search for the northwest passage was continued by 
Captain George Weymouth in 1605, under the patronage 
of Lord Popham and Sir Ferdinando Gorges. Weymouth 
reached the coast of America at the mouth of the present 
Penobscot River in Maine. By making presents to the In- 
dians and by treating them kindly, he induced five of them 
to come on board his ship. These five Indians were kid- 

1 Best, Frobisher's First Voyage, in Voyages of the Elizabethan Sea- 
men to America, Payne's edition, pp. 65, 66. 

2 Ibid., pp. 76-88. s Ibid., p. 136. 



I5 6 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [408 

napped and carried to England, along with their canoes 
and the personal belongings which they had with them at 
the time of capture. There appears to have been no feeling 
of opposition shown to such an act. Three of them were 
presented by Weymouth to Gorges, and two to Pop- 
ham. 1 Gorges declared that " this accident must be 
acknowledged the means under God of putting on foot and 
giving life to all our plantations ". 2 Weymouth did not 
propose to obtain financial profit by the sale of these In- 
dians any more than did his predecessors, Cabot and Fro- 
bisher. His immediate purpose was probably to please his 
patrons by a curious gift, and doubtless he shared the pur- 
pose of Gorges and Popham of learning from them the re- 
sources of their native land, and by instructing them, to 
have them fitted to act as intelligent guides and interpreters 
in some future expedition. His instructions required that 
he treat the Indians kindly so that they might prove 
friendly to future settlements. 3 The treatment of the cap- 
tives in England was evidently kind. Gorges kept his In- 
dians in his family three years and obtained from them 
the knowledge he desired. The Indians were shown to the 
curious, perhaps for money, and it has been held that one, 
after death, was exhibited for an admission price. 4 

1 Mather, Magnalia Christ i Americana, etc., first American edition, 
(1820), i, p. 52; Prince, A Chronological History of New England 
in the Form of Annals, edition of 1887, ii, p. 26; Rosier, A True 
Relation of the most prosperous Voyage made this present year, etc., 
in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, series 3, viii, p. 145. 

2 Gorges, A True Relation of the late Battel! fought in New England, 
etc., in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, series 3, vi, p. 51 ; 
Williamson, The History of the State of Maine from its first Dis- 
covery, i, p. 207 ; Young, Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers of New 
England, etc., second edition, p. 190. 

s Stith, History of Virginia, bk. i, pp. 33, 34; Drake, The Old Indian 
Chronicle, edition of 1867, pp. 10-13. 
4 Shakespeare's jeering remark in " The Tempest," Act II, Scene II, 



409] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: KIDNAPPING 157 

Captain Edward Harlow, under the patronage of the 
Earl of Southampton, visited America in 161 1, and at 
" Monhigan Island " seized three Indians who had come 
on board to trade. One of these escaped and incited his 
friends to revenge, so Harlow proceeded southward and 
from the islands in the vicinity of Cape Cod kidnapped 
three others. With these five Indians he returned to Eng- 
land. 1 

Though in the cases cited the Indians taken by the Eng- 
lish were probably not destined to actual slavery, yet in- 
stances are not wanting in which they were taken for that 
purpose. The profit to be derived from the sales in the 
slave markets was tempting. Just before sending out the 
expedition of 16 14, Captain Henry Harley brought to 
Gorges a native of the island of Capawick 2 (Martha's 
Vineyard.) This Indian had been captured with some 

regarding those who refuse to help a lame beggar, but who will pay 
their money to see a dead Indian, may apply to one of these cap- 
tives. Out of the common interest in savages the poet doubtless 
constructed the monster, Caliban. 

When the Plymouth colony was founded, two of these captives 
were placed on board a vessel bound from Bristol to the coast of 
Maine. A Spanish fleet captured the ship, and the Indians were 
carried to Spain.. Gorges afterward recovered one of these two, 
who, with at least two others of the original five, was afterward sent 
to America. Gorges, A Brief e Narration of the Original! Undertakings 
of the Advancement of Plantations into the parts of America, etc., in 
Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, series 3, vi, p. 54: 
Drake, op. cit., edition of 1867, p. 13. 

1 Hubbard, A General History of Nezv England, etc., in Massachusetts 
Historical Society Collections, series 2, v, p. 37; Drake, op. cit. 
edition of 1867, pp. 13-14. No record seems to exist regarding the 
fate of these Indians. It may have been one of them whom Gorges 
obtained from the Isle of Wight at the time the Earl of Southampton 
was in command. . 

2 Gorges, A Brief e Narration of the Originall Undertakings of the 
Advancement of Plantations into the parts of America, etc., in Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society Collections, series 3, vi, p. 59. 



I5 8 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [410 

twenty-nine others by a ship from London and taken to 
Spain for sale as a slave. The sale failed wholly or in 
part, and some of the Indians were brought to England 
and shown as curiosities as the other Indians had been. 1 
Gorges, though he had sanctioned the act of Weymouth, 
condemned the action of the captors of this group of In- 
dians, for he feared the Indians of America would be un- 
friendly to colonial enterprise. 

The London ship above mentioned was one commanded 
by Thomas Hunt, and formed part of Smith's expedition 
for the carrying of fish, furs and oil from New England 
to Virginia and Malaga. Smith took the first ship to Vir- 
ginia and left Hunt to take the other to Spain with a cargo 
of dry fish. But a cargo of slaves seemed to offer greater 
gain than one of fish. Twenty-seven Indians were taken 
captive off the Massachusetts coast and sent to Spain. 
Among this number was Tisquantum (called Sqnantum by 
the English), who had formerly been captured by Wey- 
mouth, and who had been returned to America. Some of the 
Indians were sold in Spain for £20 apiece. By the interfer- 
ence of some monks the further sale of the Indians was pre- 
vented, and Squantum, at least, was carried off to England. 
When Gorges sent out Captain Hobson to America two 
of Hunt's captives accompanied him, but, on arrival, they 
escaped and so aroused their friends that a settlement 
by Hobson was prevented. This feeling of suspicion and 
hatred toward the English must have found expression, if 
it had not been prevented by the deadly pestilence of 1616 
which weakened the Indians of New England, and by the 
intercession of Squantum who proved a firm friend of the 

1 Drake, The Book of the Indians, etc., ninth edition, bk. ii, p. 8 ; 
Gorges, op. cit., in Massaclinsetts Ilistorical Society Collections, series 
3, vi, p. 58; Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation, pp. 111-112, 
in Original Narratives of Early American History. 



ah] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: KIDNAPPING 159 

English in arranging a treaty with the Indians. 1 Hunt's 
act was done entirely on his own responsibility and with- 
out the knowledge or sanction of Smith who denounced it 
as a vile deed, since it ever afterward kept him from trading 
in those parts. 2 

The evidence of kidnapping in the southern colonies 
seems very meagre. The existing records deal chiefly with 
other modes of obtaining Indians for slaves. There were 
undoubtedly many cases of kidnapping pure and simple, 
if we may judge by the general attitude of the colonists 
toward the Indians; but kidnapping, considered as distinct 
from any sort of warfare, was not a suitable means of pro- 
ducing the number of Indians needed or desired by the 
Carolina colonists. Trade and war were more prolific 
means, and hence were more largely used. Kidnapping 
was a process of obtaining slaves suited only to a locality, 
or to an occasion when but few Indians were desired. 

Yet certain incidents show the custom was practiced 
here as elsewhere. An event of 1685 is probably only one 
of many such which occurred on the southern coast and in 
the interior at the time of the Indian disturbances in that 
section, before war had actually begun. In that year a 
vessel from New York kidnapped four Indians in the 
locality of Cape Fear, North Carolina, and carried them to 

1 Gorges, op. cit., in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 
series 3, vi, p. 60; Freeman, Civilization and Barbarism, etc., p. 39; 
Drake, The Old Indian Chronicle, edition of 1867, pp. 6-7. 

2 Smith, A Description of New England, etc., in Massachusetts 
Historical Society Collections, series 3, vi, p. 132. There is no reason 
to believe that Smith had ideas regarding the Indians different from 
those held by the Englishmen of his time who did not rank the 
savage above the position of the slave, and who generally looked upon 
the Indians as a " degraded, inferior and faithless race, and no more 
to be regarded than the Africans." Drake, op. cit., edition of 1867, 
p. 7- 



!6o INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [412 

New York for sale. 1 That there was a certain amount of 
kidnapping carried on in the other southern colonies, as Vir- 
ginia and Maryland, is shown by the colonial legislation re- 
garding the matter, which will be discussed later. 

It has been seen that it was customary to enslave Indian 
captives taken in war, and that certain colonial governments 
even allowed the seizure of peaceable Indians in time of 
war, lest they join with the warring Indians. The distinc- 
tion between kidnapping, pure and simple, and seizures 
made in time of war, was too delicate to be always ob- 
served, and was open to abuse by unscrupulous persons de- 
siring to obtain Indians for sale. Nowhere is this more 
clearly exemplified than in the New England colonies. 
Here, as in the south, kidnapping was carried on by the 
frontier people who were generally rough and lawless. 
Along with indifference to the rights of the Indians, fraud- 
ulent practices in trade, and refusal to sell them arms and 
ammunition on the slightest suspicion that the weapons 
might be used against the whites, the kidnapping of Indians, 
and the selling of them as slaves in the West Indies were 
all numbered among the causes of King Philip's War. 2 

With the opening of King Philip's War the custom was 
continued. The Maine Indians were about to join those in 
Massachusetts when, through the efforts of Abraham Shurt 
of Pemaquid, and by means of promises made to right their 
wrongs and treat the native fairly in the future, the union 
with the Massachusetts Indians was prevented, and assur- 
ances of friendship were exchanged with the English. 
Rumors were soon spread abroad, however, that the In- 
dians were possessed of arms, and were forming a con- 
spiracy against the colony. The government became 

1 O'Callaghan. Calendar of Manuscripts, etc., pt. ii, p. 117. 
1 Ellis and Morris, King Philip's War, p. 294; Drake, The Book of 
the Indians, etc., ninth edition, bk. iii, p. 104. 



4J-?] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: KIDNAPPING 161 

alarmed and issued a warrant to General Waldron of 
Cocheco (Dover, New Hampshire) " to seize every Indian 
known to be a man slayer, traitor or conspirator". Waldron 
took it upon himself to issue general warrants for this pur- 
pose. These warrants fell into the hands of unprincipled 
men who set about using them to immediate advantage. 
A vessel was fitted out at Pemaquid and a crew organized 
for the purpose of kidnapping Indians for sale abroad. 
Shurt remonstrated with the leaders of the proceeding and 
warned the Indians of their danger. But the plan suc- 
ceeded, at least in part. A vessel off Pemaquid, com- 
manded by one Laughton, succeeded during the winter of 
1676 in capturing several Indians, and carrying them 
abroad for sale. The Indians complained of this action, 
but the only satisfaction they obtained was more offers of 
friendship and the promise that means should be taken to 
return their captured friends to them. 1 Waldron was in- 
dicted by the grand jury for surprising and stealing seven- 
teen Indians, carrying them off to Fayal in the vessel En- 
deavor and selling them there, but was acquitted. John 
Laughton, captain of the vessel, was also indicted for the 
same offenses, found guilty by the Court of General Ses- 
sions, and fined £20. 2 More pressing matters engaged the 
attention of the authorities for some time, and no further 
attention was given to this event. 

Not even Pennsylvania was free from the custom. In 
1 710, the Indians manifested some uneasiness, and when 
the governor sent a committee to learn their wishes they 
returned eight wampum belts which represented their re- 

1 Williamson. The History of the State of Maine, etc., i, p. 531 ; 
Holmes, American Annals, etc., pp. 403-407; Hubbard. A Narrative 
of the Indian Wars in New England, etc., pp. 332-344 

* Records of the Court of Assistants of the Colony of Massachusetts 
Day, i, p. 86. 



!62 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [414 

quests. One belt signified, so the Indians explained to the 
committee, that their old women desired the friendship of 
the Christians and Indians of the government, and the 
privilege to fetch wood and water without danger and 
trouble; another, that their children might have room to 
play and sport without danger of slavery. The young men 
begged that they might be granted the privilege to hunt 
without fear of death or slavery; and the chiefs desired a 
lasting peace that thereby they might be secured against 
those " fearful apprehensions " they had felt for several 
years. 1 A similar complaint was made by the "Senoquois" to 
Lieutenant-Governor Gookin. The Indians asserted that 
one Francis La Tore had taken a boy from them and had 
sold him in New York, and requested the lieutenant-gover- 
nor to inquire about him. 2 

Whether or not actual kidnapping of the natives occurred 
in New York, at least the Indians were familiar with the 
custom as practiced by the whites. The following is a case 
in point. When the Moravian missionaries first visited 
New York, early in the eighteenth century, the whites, in 
order to counteract the influence of Rauch, one of these 
missionaries who was working at the Indian town of She- 
komeka east of the Hudson River, told the Indians of that 
section that the missionary intended to seize their young 
people, carry them beyond the seas and sell them into 
slavery. 3 

Events in New York illustrate another phase of Indian 
kidnapping. During the war between Spain and the United 

1 Futhey and Cope, History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, p. 39. 

2 Rupp, History of Lancaster County, etc., p. 89 — Based on Gookin's 
minutes of a journey in 1711 to the Indians in the vicinity of the 
Palatines. 

8 Brown, The History of Missions, or, of the Propagation of Chris- 
tianity among the Heathen since the Reformation, i, p. 394. 



4I ij] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: KIDNAPPING 163 

Netherlands prizes were occasionally brought by privateers 
to New Amsterdam from the Caribbean islands and the 
Spanish Main. Part of the cargoes of these vessels consisted 
of kidnapped Spanish Indians. Their presence in the colony 
was considered undesirable and their seizure generally un- 
fair, for they were in some cases of Spanish x as well as 
Indian blood. After peace was declared between Spain and 
the Netherlands, 1648, hostilities still continued between 
Spain and France. To privateers flying the French flag, New 
Amsterdam was a neutral port where captive negroes and 
other prize goods were sold. Among these negroes was 
sometimes found a Spanish Indian. In 1692, 2 and again in 
1699, 3 laws were passed to suppress privateering. But, 
despite these laws, the practice was adhered to, and the 
number of free Spanish Indians held in New York in- 
creased. A petition to the governor of New York, in 171 1, 
shows a free Indian woman, a resident of Southampton, 
kidnapped and sold as a slave in Madeira, from whence 
she was returned by the English consul to New York. 4 
This instance illustrates the work of pirates also. 

1 O'Callaghan, Calendar of Historical Manuscripts, pt. i, p. 45, rec- 
ords the manumission of Manuel, the Spaniard, from slavery, February 
17, 1648, for the sum of 300 carolus guilders. 

2 Colonial Laws of New York, edition of 1894, i, p. 279 

3 Ibid., i, p. 389. In 1685, the master of a Carolina brig,' in a 
petition to Governor Dongan of New York, complained of Humphrey 
Ashley, who chartered the vessel but ruined the voyage by killing 
an Indian and kidnapping four others near the Cape Fear River, 
whom he brought to the port of New York. The result shows the 
colonial government of New York not in favor of kidnapping. The 
necessity of keeping on good relations with the Iroquois made it 
policy to discourage the kidnapping custom. So it was ordered that 
all the effects of Ashley be sold at auction and the proceeds used to 
defray the cost of transporting Ashley and the four Indians back to 
Carolina. O'Callaghan, op. cit., pt. ii, p. 117. 

* O'Callaghan, op. cit., pt. ii, d. 117. 



!64 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [416 

Mention is frequently found of Spanish Indians in other 
colonies, especially in New England. Cotton Mather 
records buying a Spanish Indian and giving him to his 
father. 1 May hew mentions the death of Chilmark, a 
Spanish Indian brought from some part of the Spanish 
Indies when he was a boy and sold in New England. 2 The 
New England and other newspapers contain frequent men- 
tion of Spanish Indian runaways and Spanish Indians for 
sale in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and 
Pennsylvania. 3 The Boston News Letter of July 31, 1704, 
and October 28, 1706, mentions both negro and Indian slaves 
taken off the coast of New Spain by privateers fitted out in 
South Carolina. It may be that the so-called Spanish 
mulatto kidnapped by a privateer, sold in the colony of 
Pennsylvania and freed by the council in 1703, was a 
Spanish Indian. 4 

Considering the prevalence of piracy and privateering 
during the colonial period, it seems probable that there were 
not a few Spanish Indians brought to the different colonies 
in this way and in the cargoes of negroes from the West 
Indies and Brazil, whose existence in the colonies was never 
brought to the attention of the colonial authorities.'"' 

1 Diary of Cotton Mather, in Massachusetts Historical Society Col- 
lections, series 7, vii, p. 203. 

* Mayhew, Indian Converts, etc.. p. 120. 

s Boston News Letter, September io, 171 1 ; May 2, 1715 ; January 
15, 1719; December 28, 1720; June 18, 1724; March 2, 1732; Penn- 
sylvania Gazette, March 7, 1731 ; New England Weekly Journal, 
August 30, 1731 ; October 14, 1735; August 10, 1736; Boston Gazette 
or Weekly Advertiser, December 22, 1718; August 1, 1749; New Eng- 
land Courant, June 17, 1723; Boston Weekly Mercury, October 2, 1735. 

* Pennsylvania Colonial Records, ii, pp. 112, 120. 

5 Spanish Indians are mentioned in the following issues of the 
colonial newspapers: Boston News Letter, November 13, 1704; April 
29, 1706; August 5. 1706; May 2, 1715 : January 5, 1719; December 
28, 1720; June 18, 1724; March 2, 1732; New England Courant, June 



4I7 ] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: KIDNAPPING ^5 

" Kidnapping of Indians was contrary to express sta- 
tute in most, if not in all the colonies, and to the law of 
nations as generally recognized in the international inter- 
course of Europeans with heathen and barbarian nations." 1 
There was considerable legislative action in the different 
colonies intended to check the practice, which had, how- 
ever, but little effect. In some of the colonies laws were 
passed intending to put an end to the practice by provid- 
ing fines and penalties for the kidnapping of Indians. In 
other colonies legislative or executive action dealt, not with 
the custom in general, but with certain specific events which 
aroused attention or were brought by some one concerned 
directly to the notice of the legislative body or the execu- 
tive. One thing is apparent throughout all the legislation 
on this subject: the absence of any particular sympathy for 
the Indian himself. In some cases the Indian was only in- 
cluded incidentally or by implication in a general law which 
made no specific mention of him. In other cases laws against 
kidnapping were passed because of the effect that kid- 
napping might have on the Indians within or surrounding 
the colony. In short, the motive was the desire for self- 
protection dictated by fear of disastrous results, rather than 
by any humanitarian feeling. 

It has been seen that kidnapping concerned two classes of 
Indians, those taken in English territory, and those taken 
in Spanish territory and brought to the English colonies. 
Colonial legislation and executive action included both 
classes. 

17, 1723; Boston Gazette or Weekly Journal, August 1, 1749; Boston 
Weekly Mercury, Oc'ober 2, 1735; New England Weekly Journal, 
August 30, 1731 ; August 10, 1736; Pennsy'vania Gazette, March 7, 
1731 ; American Weekly Mercury, April 10, 1739. 

1 Hurd. The Law of Freedom and Bondage in the United States, i, 
p. 205. 



i66 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [418 

The Virginia act of 1657 aimed directly at the stealing 
of Indian children by Indians who had been hired by the 
English. All such stolen children were to be returned to 
their own tribe within ten days, and five hundred pounds of 
tobacco were to be paid by the offending party to the in- 
former of such kidnapping. 1 

In 1672, the council of Maryland forbade the carrying 
of a certain friendly Indian out of the colony without 
special license from the governor. 2 In 1692, for the sake of 
preserving peace with the neighboring Indians, a law was 
enacted forbidding any one to " entice, surprise, transport, 
or cause to be transported, or sell or dispose of any friendly 
Indian or Indians whatsoever, or endeavor or attempt so to 
do, without license from the governor for the time being," 
and offering a reward to any informer of such an event. 31 
The same law was reenacted in 1705. 4 

Article ninety-one of the Massachusetts Body of Liber- 
ties of 1641 provided that no one except captives taken in 
just wars etc. should be held as slaves in the colony. 5 In 
1649, the Body of Liberties was reen forced by a law decree- 
ing: "If any man stealeth a man or mankind, he shall 
surely be put to death." 6 Some attention was given to 
enforcing this law, for the records show an occasional im- 
prisonment for stealing Indians. 7 On July 4, 1667, the 

1 Hening, op. cit., i, p. 482. 

8 Archives of Maryland, xv, p. 22. 

3 Ibid., xiii, p. 525. * Ibid., xxvi, p. 514. 

6 Colonial laws of Massachusetts reprinted from the edition of 1660 
zvith the supplements to 1672, containing also the body of Liberties 
of 164 1, p. 53. 

6 Colonial Lazus of Massachusetts, edition of 1672. p. 15. 

7 Vol. XXX, No. 227 A. of the Massachusetts manuscript records 
contains a petition, dated September 20, 1676, of one John Harton 
imprisoned for stealing Indians, asking freedom under bail in order 
to support his wife and family. 



4I o] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: KIDNAPPING ifty 

governor of Barbadoes sent back to Massachusetts two In- 
dians that had been taken to England and then carried to 
Barbadoes and sold as slaves. In an accompanying address 
to the governor and assistants of Massachusetts he prom- 
ised to rectify all such abuses that might come under his 
jurisdiction. 1 But in spite of laws and precautions the 
practice of kidnapping continued throughout the colonial 
period. 

Other colonies followed the example of Massachusetts in 
making man-stealing a capital crime. New Jersey, in 1675, 2 
and New Hampshire, in 1679, 3 enacted similar laws. Just 
how far the laws were intended to relate to kidnapped 
Indians is a matter for conjecture. They were in all prob- 
ability intended to apply to the stealing of negro slaves, and 
there is nothing in their content to show that they were in- 
tended to relate also to the stealing of free Indians. 

1 Felt, The Ecclesiastical History of New England, ii, p. 418. 
1 Learning and Spicer, The Grants, Concessions and Original Con- 
stitutions of the Province of New Jersey, etc., p. 105. 
5 New Hampshire Historical Society Collections, viii, p. 11. 



CHAPTER VII 
Processes of Enslavement : Trade 

In all sections where captives in war or kidnapped In- 
dians were purchased from the natives, such buying was 
closely connected with the fur trade. The general fickle- 
ness and instability of the Indian's character, which caused 
the tribes to change their allegiance so readily from one 
white race to the other, made easy the acquisition of slaves 
along with other commodities. The routes along which the 
fur trade was carried on facilitated both the acquisition of 
Indians and their transportation to the markets. And the 
fact that furs and the agricultural products of the south 
were not commodities that competed with English wares 
eliminated opposition to the traffic in Indians. 1 

Throughout the region of the Mississippi Valley and the 
Great Lakes the " coureurs de bois " colledted furs and pur- 
chased slaves, 2 both of which they sold to Carolina traders 
at the mouth of the Mississippi River, and in some cases 
they went to the Carolinas directly to effect their sales. 3 
Throughout the Carolinas, the Mississippi and Illinois 
country and the west, the fur and Indian trade was heavy. 
By 1720 the Carolina fur trade had reached very large 
dimensions, and the trade in Indians had developed propor- 
tionally, so that at " set times of the year " a flourishing 

1 Hewat, op. cit ., i, p. 126. 
' Margry, op. cit., vi, p. 316. 

s Ibid., v, pp. 178, 354, 360, 361 ; Wisconsin Historical Society Col- 
lections, xvi, p. 332. 

168 [420 



42 1 ] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: TRADE rfg 

business in " dressed deer skins, furs and young Indian 
slaves " was carried on by the traders. 1 

In the Carolinas the custom of purchasing their prisoners 
from the friendly Indians, the holding of these captives in 
the colony as slaves, or, possibly, their subsequent sale to 
the West India islands, existed almost from the beginning 
of the colony. 2 But the proprietors, anxious to cultivate the 
friendship of the Indians, forbade, in the temporary laws 
sent out to Governor Sayle in 1671, that any Indian on any 
pretext whatever be made a slave, or without his own con- 
sent be carried out of the country. 3 

Yet the traffic in Indians continued. The adventurous 
nature of the settlers, 4 combined with the need for laborers 
which could be partially supplied by the use of Indians at 
home or by the negroes for whom they could be readily ex- 
changed in the islands, and coupled with the attraction of 
good prices which the Indians brought when sold for cash, 
induced both planters and government officials to enter 
largely into the trade. 

1 South Carolina Historical Society Collections, v, pp. 166, 460-462; 
Narratives of Early Carolina (Woodward's relation of his Westo 
voyage), p. 133, in Original Narratives of Early American History; 
Calendar of State Papers, colonial series, vii, p. 634. One of the 
instruments of supply was the Cherokee. Thomas, The Indians of 
North America, etc., p. 96; Logan, The History of Upper Carolina, 
i, p. 174. 

s In 1666 Robert Sanford, secretary of the proprietors, made a voy- 
age from Cape Fear to Port Royal and reported to the proprietors 
that the Indians of that section were anxious for friendship with the 
whites "notwithstanding we . . . had killed and sent away many of 
them." Robert Sanford' s Relation of his Voyage in 1666, in Charles- 
ton Year Book, 1885, p. 292. 

x Rivers, A Sketch of the History of South Carolina, etc., appendix, 
P- 353; Journal of the Grand Council of South Carolina, August 25, 
1671 — June 24, 1680, p. 84. 

4 For the character of the Carolina settlers, see McCrady, The His- 
tory of South Carolina under the Royal Government, pp. 297-298. 



l y INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [422 

To supply the ever-increasing demand for Indian slaves, 
the tribes of the south and southwest constantly preyed 
upon each other. The matter of international rivalry also* 
entered largely into the policy of the Carolinians. The In- 
dians of the south and west were divided in their allegiance 
to the three white races, Spanish, French and English. 
Each of these three nations sought not only to win and hold 
the allegiance of as many of the tribes as possible, but also 
to use these tribes to strike at its rival's allies, and the 
readiness with which the English, especially, bought the 
captives for slaves served to keep up a continuous series of 
depredations of tribe upon tribe. 1 

The Westo, an important tribe on the southern border of 
South Carolina, furnished a number of such captives dur- 
ing the latter part of the eighteenth century in spite of their 
two treaties made with the proprietors, 1677 and 1678, in 
which they promised not to prey upon the smaller and 
weaker tribes who were friends and allies of the English. 3 
In 1693, the Cherokee sent a delegation to Governor Smith 
of South Carolina to complain of the Esaw, Congaree, and 
Savannah who were preying upon those tribes and selling 
the captives thus obtained as slaves to the English. The 
Savannah, like the Westo, were so acting in violation of 
their treaty by which they agreed not to molest neighbor- 
ing tribes. 3 In 1706, English Indian allies attacked Pensa- 

1 Rivers, op. cit., p. 126, holds that but little credit can be given to the 
assertion that the colonists instigated the tribes against each other 
for the purpose of trading in their captives. Hewat, op. cit., i, pp. 
126-127, asserts that the colonists early found out the usefulness to 
this end of setting one tribe of Indians against another. Lawson, 
The History of Carolina, etc., p. 325, tells of the Coranine Ind'ans 
inviting the Machapunga Indians to a feast, taking them prisoners 
and selling them to the English. 

1 Rivers, op. cit., p. 126; Hewat, op. cit., i, p. 127. 
3 Hewat, op. cit., i, p. 127. 



423] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: TRADE 171 

cola and carried off members of the Apalachee tribe for 
sale as slaves. 1 On July io, 1708, Thomas Maine, an agent 
of the general assembly of South Carolina, reported to that 
body that the Talapoosa and the Chickasaw, incited by the 
good prices which the traders offered them for captives, 
were engaged in making slaves of the Indians on the lower 
Mississippi who were subject to the French. In this in- 
stance one finds the usual excuse given by the English in 
such cases : " some men think it both serves to lessen their 
number before the French can arm them, and it is a more 
effective way of civilizing and instructing them than all 
the efforts used by the French missionaries ". 2 

The French asserted that the policy of the English of 
Carolina in setting one Indian tribe against another was a 
part of their plan for driving the French from Louisiana 
and the Mississippi River country. 3 The process of obtain- 
ing Indian slaves through trade was, then, a part of a great 
political contest. The alliance of the leading tribes, such 
as the Chickasaw and the Choctaw, meant much to both 
English and French from the territorial and the commercial 
standpoints. In consequence, no effort was spared by either 
of the white races to obtain a dominating influence over 
these tribes in order to use them for their own benefit. This 
benefit consisted largely of the gain in trade both in furs 
and slaves. The French sought to dissolve this friendship 
by telling the Chickasaw that the English were only seeking 
to destroy them by having them wage war for slaves, and 
that when they were sufficiently weakened by war the Eng- 
lish would fall upon them and sell them all as slaves. 4 

1 French, op. cit., pt. iii, p. 36. 

2 Public Records of South Carolina, 1706-1710, p. 107; B. P. R. O., 
vol. 620. 

5 Winsor, The Mississippi Basin, etc., p. 133. The English in their 
turn accused {he French of pillaging the traders. 
* Margry, op. cit., iv, pp. 406, 507, 516. 



I7 2 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [424 

In consequence of the unstable nature of the Indian and 
the influence brought to bear upon the tribes by both French 
and English, it was but natural that Indian relations in the 
section east of the lower Mississippi should be kaleidoscopic 
in character. 1 As each tribe gave, or refused to give, alle- 
giance to the English it was in turn preyed upon by the 
English allies. If one is to accept the assertions of the 
French in the early eighteenth century, the Chickasaw dur- 
ing their eight or ten years intercourse with the English lost 
five hundred prisoners, and the Choctaw, eight hundred, 
sold as slaves by the English. 2 

The opening of the War of the Spanish Succession in- 
creased the activity of both English and French among the 
Indians and the consequent preying of tribe upon tribe. 
The French asserted that they established their colony at 
Mobile for the purpose of keeping the savages of the neigh- 
borhood as allies of the French and Spanish against the 
English and Chickasaw whose purpose, in their opinion, was 
to win them over or else destroy them by enslavement. 3 By 
1700 the English of Carolina had crossed the Mississippi 
River and on the west bank pursued the same tactics with 
the Indians as elsewhere. 4 Slaves were obtained by the 
English and Chickasaw from nations as far distant as the 

1 On June 18, 1718, Robert Johnson, governor of Carolina, reported 
that he had made peace " with several nations, particularly the great 
nation of the Creeks who live to the southward near St. August ne," 
and added that " the treaties with them are very precarious so long 
as the French from Morels and the Spaniards from St. Augustine 
live and have intercourse amongst them, and do continually by pres- 
ents and furnishing them with arms and ammunition and buying the 
slaves and plunder, encourage them to war upon us." Public Rec- 
ords of South Carolina, 1717-1720, vii, p. 135; B. P. R. O., B. T., 
x, p. 2157. 

1 Margry, op. cit., iv, p. 517. s Ibid., iv, p. 578. 

4 Ibid., iv, p. 544; Report concerning Canadian Archives, 1905,1, p. 523. 



425] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: TRADE 173 

Taensa. 1 In furtherance of their scheme to win the friend- 
ship of the warlike Chickasaw, and so strike a blow at the 
English and protect their allies from the slave raids of the 
former, the French repeatedly sought to make peace be- 
tween the Chickasaw and Choctaw. 2 But the English influ- 
ence was too strong for such a peace to be permanent so 
long as the Choctaw remained allies of the English. The 
peace arranged by Bienville in 1703 was broken in 1705 by 
the Chickasaw making an irruption into the territory of the 
Choctaw, capturing a number of their people and selling 
them to the English of Carolina. 3 A later peace arranged 
by Bienville was no more permanent, for in 171 1 the 
Chickasaw, at the instigation of the English, fell upon the 
Choctaw and word was brought to Bienville that three hun- 
dred Choctaw women and children had been carried off as 
slaves by the Indian allies of the English and Chickasaw, 
and that the Chickasaw themselves had carried off one hun- 
dred and fifty. 4 By 171 3 English traders and agents were 
among the Natchez Indians to purchase Indians whom the 
French accused them of obtaining by exciting the tribes 
against each other. 5 

In their relations with the Indians the Carolina pro- 
prietors appear to have been playing a double game. They 
posed as protectors of the tribes and made treaties to insure 
the peace and safety of their allies. Consistently with such 
action, also, they opposed the purchase by the colonists of 

1 French, op. cit., pt. iii, p. 32. 

* Ibid., new series, i, p. 86. 

* Ibid., new series, i, p. 07; pt. iii, p. 33. 

* Ibid., pt. iii, p. 34. 

5 Ibid., new series, p. 123; Margry, op. cit., v, p. 506. The slaves ac- 
quired on this special occasion were from the Shawnee nation, and 
had been taken by a combined force of Chickasaw, Yazoo and 
Natchez. 



!74 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [426 

captives taken in various intertribal difficulties. On the 
other hand, it was the proprietors themselves who gave per- 
mission to sell in the West Indies the Indian captives taken 
by the colonists in wars against the tribes. 1 The distinc- 
tion, if any existed, between the classes of captives obtained 
in various ways and held as slaves, was too fine a one for 
the colonists to appreciate; hence the purchase and sale of 
Indians continued. 

In short, the whole attitude of the proprietors on the 
subject came primarily from jealousy for the colonial offi- 
cials, and not from feelings of humanity or sympathy with 
the Indians. They opposed any action of the colonial offi- 
cials which tended to make them independent of the 
proprietors' authority. This explains why they removed 
the deputies, Mathews, Moore and Middleton, and Gover- 
nor West, also, in 1683, for selling Indians to the West 
Indies. 2 News, in fact, had reached the proprietors that the 
dealers in Indians were the " greatest sticklers " against 
having the parliament elected according to the proprietors' 
instructions, so drastic measures were necessary. The fact 
that the proprietors chose to succeed West, Sir John Yea- 
mans, a man filled with the slave sentiment of Barbadoes, 3 
is sufficient evidence that they entertained no hostile feel- 
ings against the system of slavery in general. 

1 Rivers, op. cit., p. 132. 

7 Hewat, op. cit., i, p. 78. In their letter to West, telling him of 
their sanction of his appointment, the proprietors cautioned him 
against appointing any deputies, including Mathews, Moore and 
Middleton, who might belong to the opposing party. Calendar of 
State Papers, colonial series, xii, p. 11. West became governor in 
1674. 

* Oldmixon, The British Empire in America, i, p. 337; Grahame, 
op. cit., ii, p. 115. Yeamans prospered so well in the traffic in negroes 
with Barbadoes that, in 1684, he returned to his plantation and the 
office of governor was restored to West. 



4 2 7 ] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: TRADE iy^ 

A secondary reason for the opposition of the Carolina 
proprietors to Indian slavery lay in the fact that the stirring 
up of the tribes by the colonists in order to obtain captives 
for slaves resulted in danger and damage to the colony, 
which necessarily meant financial loss to the proprietors. 
To carry out the idea of protecting the Indians, the grand 
council, in accordance with previous instructions from its 
superiors, sent two agents to visit the plantations in 1680 
and bring to Charleston all Indian slaves whom the Westo 
had sold to the planters. These slaves were set at liberty. 1 
In the same year, the proprietors appointed a commission 
to prevent the trade in Indians and to decide all cases aris- 
ing in future between Indians and English. 2 The commis- 
sion proved a failure and was abolished in 1682 on the 
ground that it was used for the oppression instead of the 
protection of the natives. 3 

The proprietors continued their directions to the gover- 
nors regarding the sale of Indians. On May 10, 1682, they 
instructed Governor Joseph Moreton that upon no pretense 
or reason whatsoever was he to suffer any Indian to be sent 
away from Carolina, asserting that they had taken into 
their protection as subjects of England all the Indians 
within four hundred miles of Charleston. Hence the In- 
dians must not be made slaves in war, or in any way injured 
by the colonists without proprietary permission. 4 Addi- 
tional instructions, September 30. 1683, forbade the gov- 
ernor and council to allow the transportation of any In- 
dians without the consent of the parliament, and gave the 

1 Rivers, op. cit., p. 126. 

* West was a member of this commission. 

3 Chalmers, Political Annals of the Province of Carolina, in Carroll, 
op. cit., ii, p. 314. 

* Public Records of South Carolina, i, 1663-1684, p. 141 ; B. P. R. O., 
Colonial Entry Book, xx, p. 184. 



^6 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [428 

palatine's court, to be assembled by the governor and coun- 
cil for the purpose, the privilege of proposing such an act 
to the parliament. Any officer commissioned by the coun- 
cil or chosen by the palatine's court who transported In- 
dians without a license was to be at once dismissed. 1 

A battle royal was now on between the proprietors, with 
perhaps a small number of sympathizers in the parliament, 
on the one hand, and the council and traders on the other. 
The proprietors made inquiries regarding the selling of In- 
dians both from the council and from private individuals. 2 
In a letter, September 30, 1686, also, they set forth their 
dissatisfaction with the condition of affairs and asserted 
their belief that " the private gains made by some by 
buying slaves of the Indians had more to do with the 
opinion that they ought to be transported than any consid- 
eration of public safety or benefit." 3 

1 Calendar of State Papers, colonial series, xi, pp. 508-510. 

2 The colonial officials persistently denied that they stirred up the 
tribes to make war upon each other so as to obtain captives for slaves. 
Such letters and statements of denial are found in North Carolina 
Colonial Records, ii, p. 252. (A letter of April 5, 1716) ; Journal of 
the Board of Trade, Public Record Office, Co. 391, 25 R., xvii, p. 175 
(Testimony rendered July 16. 1715). The government officials claimed 
that the Indian outbreaks against the English were caused, not by 
any action of the officials in stirring them up to obtain slaves, but 
rather by the abuses practiced upon them by the traders and by the 
inability of the colonial government to control the traders. Journal 
of the Board of Trade, Public Record Office, Co. 391, 25 R., xvii, 
pp. 168, 169, 176, 191. 

* Chalmers, op. cit., in Carroll, op. cit., ii, p. 314. This special letter 
of the proprietors was called forth by Captain Godfrey's treatment 
of the Indians, and by the opinions of private individuals expressed 
in letters to them. The proprietors had already struck a blow at the 
council by giving the parliament a right to punish members of the 
council for misbehavior. The council had complained of this to the 
proprietors, who in turn asserted that the Indian dealers (members 
of the council) feared lest the parliament have too much power over 
them. Archdale, A Nezv Description, etc., in Carroll, op. cit., ii, p. 100. 



4 29] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: TRADE iyy 

The dealers in Indians stated three reasons for the traffic : 
that the Savannah, having united all their tribes, had be- 
come so powerful that it was dangerous to disoblige them; 
that South Carolina was at war with the Waniah in which 
the Savannah assisted; that humanity decreed the buying of 
their slaves to keep them from " a cruel death ". These 
reasons for the traffic were held by the proprietors to be 
unsound. They declared the buying of slaves from the 
Savannah alone, and the forbidding of such buying from 
the other Indians would serve not only to keep the Savan- 
nah united, but would join the other tribes to them and so 
strengthen them that they would be a danger to the colony. 
The war with the Waniah, they thought, had been the re- 
sult of a quarrel that the whites picked for the purpose of 
obtaining Indians to transport. If the Savannah were to 
take captive the Waniah and sell them to the dealers in 
Indians, it was only to those few dealers who had a share 
in the government. These dealers had resorted to subter- 
fuge in order to force the Savannah to sell only to them. 
The emissaries of peace sent by the Westo and the Waniah 
to the Savannah, declared the proprietors, had been seized 
by the last named and sold to the dealers, thus prolonging 
both the Waniah and the Westo wars, and likely to cause 
other wars. By purchasing slaves from the Savannah, 
also, these Indians were encouraged to make raids upon 
their weaker neighbors. Such activities when discussed in 
England prevented settlers from going to South Carolina, 
fearing lest the runaway negroes could not be brought back 
on so large a continent unless the Indians were preserved. 
Finally, said the proprietors, God's blessing could not be 
expected on a government so managed. 1 

The proprietors, however, did not wish to forbid the 

1 Calendar of State Papers, colonial series, xi, pp. 508-510. 



I7 g INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [430 

selling of Indians. They recognized the usefulness, as 
West had done, of permitting " soldiers for their encour- 
agement, to make the best advantage that they can out of 
their prisoners " ; but they wanted the initiative in the 
matter to rest with themselves. Accordingly they author- 
ized the parliament to pass acts for the exportation of "such 
Indians as they should decide upon ", the said Indians to be 
shown in the house and examined by sworn interpreters as 
to their capture, name and station. The license issued by 
the parliament was to specify the person to whom the leave 
of exportation was granted. The decision of the parlia- 
ment was to be rendered by a majority of the house. This 
license was not granted by a standing order, but for " each 
batch ". Anyone exporting Indians without such a license 
was to receive the utmost punishment prescribed by law. 1 

During his administration, John Archdale, consistent 
with his religious persuasion of Quaker and his political 
position of proprietor, did what he could to check the traffic 
in Indians. In 1695, a party of Yamasee (English In- 
dians) fell upon a party of Spanish Indians not far from 
St. Augustine, took them prisoners and brought them to 
Charleston for sale to the English islands as slaves. On ex- 
amining the captives and finding that they were Christians, 
Archdale ordered the chief of the Yamasee to return them 
to the Spanish governor. The difficulty of restraining In- 
dian tribes from revenging themselves upon their enemies 
and selling their captives as slaves, Archdale himself 
records. 2 



1 Calendar of State Papers, colonial series, xi, pp. 508-510. 

2 Archdale, op. cit., in Carroll, op. cit., ii, p. 107; Hewat, op. cit., 
i, p. 78; Calendar of State Papers, colonial series, xi, p. 508; Public 
Records of South Carolina, i, 1663-1684, p 266; B. P. R. O., Colonial 
Entry Book, xxii, p. 20. The Journal of the English Board of Trade, 
vol. xi, p. 174, under the date August 19, 1698, and the marginal 



43 1 ] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: TRADE jyg 

In 1700, James Moore forced the council to annul the 
election of Moreton as governor, and was himself chosen 
for the office. He then packed council and assembly with 
his associates and followers. These persons at once pro- 
ceeded to use their offices for their own financial benefit, 
and one of the means practiced to that end was the selling 
of Indians to the islands of the West Indies. Moore issued 
commissions to persons to capture all the Indians they could 
for his own profit. 1 At his instigation the Apalachee at- 
tacked the missions of Santa Catalina, on the island of that 
name off the coast of the present state of Georgia, and the 
mission of Santa Fe in Florida, burned the villages, mas- 
sacred many Christian Indians and carried off others to be 
sold as slaves in Carolina. 2 The members of the assembly 
and other inhabitants of the colony, June 26, 1705, com- 
plained to the proprietors of Moore's enslaving Indians, 
not on the grounds of justice and humanity, but of expe- 
diency. His action was ruining the Indian trade by creat- 
ing confusion among the Indians, and would, they feared, 
arouse an Indian war. 3 The proprietors denounced the 
governor but did not stop the practice. 

heading American Indian Slaves, contains the following direction to 
the governor of Bermudas : "And upon observation made that it is 
commonly said there are many Americans at Bermuda kept as slaves ; 
ordered, that the governor be required to give an account, what 
number there are of them, from whence they are bought and by 
whom imported." The governor's reply was a mere tabulation of 
slaves, with a statement of their sex and the locality in which they 
resided, without any special reference to Indian slaves. No further 
reference was made to the matter by the Board of Trade. 

1 Rivers, op. cit., appendix, p. 456. 

2 O'Gorman, A History of the Roman Catholic Church in the United 
States, p. 39. 

3 Rivers, op. cit., appendix, p. 456; North Carolina Colonial Records, 
ii, p. 904. The complaint read : " ruined trade in skins and furs 



!8o INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [432 

By 1707 the activities of the traders in Indian slaves had 
become so notorious that the South Carolina assembly took 
up the consideration of means to remedy the matter. A 
board of commissioners, nine in number, was appointed to 
have entire charge of the subject. By them it was declared 
that one condition of a trader's license and bond should 
provide against the seizure of free Indians. Provision was 
also made for the appointment of Indian agents with resi- 
dence (except a vacation of two months) among the In- 
dians, said agents to give a bond of £200 and receive a 
yearly salary of £250. Their term of office was limited to 
one year. 1 But conditions became worse after the appoint- 
ment of the board than before. 2 Indian slaves were con- 
stantly brought to Charleston and sold openly in the market 
place. Unprincipled men were granted trading privileges 
and made Indian agents. 3 A report on the condition of the 
colony in 1708 shows that these slaves were sold in Boston, 
Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and the 
West Indies. 4 

It was the purpose of the assembly to have the board 
regulate the trade and keep it in the hands of the govern- 
ment. Its agents were required to take the following oath : 
" I, A. B., do promise and declare that I will well and truly 
observe and perforin all the powers, orders and instruc- 

(whereby we held our chief correspondence with England) and 
turned it into a trade of Indians or slave making, whereby the In- 
dians to the south and west of us are already involved in blood and 
confusion, a trade so odious and abominable, that every colony in 
America (although they have equal temptation) abhor to follow." 

1 Logan, op. cit., i, p. 172. 

1 State of the British and French Colonies in North America, p. 25. 

5 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1859, xiii, p. 300. 

* Thomas, op. cit., ii, pp. 95-100; Journal of the Board of Trade, 
British Public Record Office, Co. 391. 25 R., xvii, p. 168. 



4331 PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: TRADE jgj 

tions, as shall be from time to time given or sent to me by 
the present commissioners, and that I will not embezzle or 
make away with any goods, wares, merchandise, skins, 
furs, slaves, or other good or liquors whatsoever, that shall 
be entrusted or given in charge to me or come into my 
hands, belonging to the public, and that I will not directly 
or indirectly trade with any Indian whatsoever for any 
skins, furs or slaves, but for the sole use of the public; and 
that I will keep secret and not divulge the debates and reso- 
lutions of this Board, so help me God." * 

Further directions required that the agents buy no male 
slaves above the age of fourteen years ; 2 that they should 
" not buy knowingly any free Indian for a slave, nor make 
a slave of any Indian that ought to be free, that is to say, 
an Indian of any nation that is in amity and under the pro- 
tection of this government"; 3 and that they should not buy 
an Indian as slave until such had been at least three days 
in the town of the warrior who had captured him. 4 Any 
Indian trader who, by his own confession or by verdict of 
a jury, should be found guilty of selling any free Indian 
as a slave, at any time after the ratification of this act, 

1 Indian Book, 17101718, i, p. 17, in Columbia, South Carolina, His- 
torical Commission Department. The letters of the missionaries of 
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts 
stationed in South Carolina contain frequent mention of the traders' 
action: Letters of Le Jau, 1708; February and July, 1711 (The letter 
of February 20, 171 1, relates an instance of the traders bringing back 
one hundred Indian slaves); August 10, 1714; Letters of Johnston, 
January 27, 1715 ; December 19, 1715, in Records of the S. P. G. F. P. 

* Indian Book, 1710-1718, i, p. 29, in Columbia, South Carolina His- 
torical Commission Department, (directions given to traders. July 
24, 1716). 

* Ibid., i, p. 156, (directions given to traders, May 14, 1717) ; i, p. 28, 
(directions given to traders July 24, 1716) ; i, p. 40, (directions given 
to traders, July 27, 1716). 

4 Logan, op. cit., i, p. 180. 



1 82 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [434 

should forfeit the sum of £60 current money of the prov- 
ince, and failing to pay such fine, was to receive such cor- 
poral punishment as the judges of a General Session might 
decree, not extending to life or limb; and upon conviction 
for such offense the Indian slave so sold was declared free. 
The directions further urged the agents to aim constantly 
to promote peace and good will among all nations of In- 
dians with whom South Carolina was accustomed to trade, 
and to engage as many others as possible to embrace the 
friendship and amity of the English. 1 

In the enactment of these measures it was not the pur- 
pose of the assembly to stop the traffic in Indians, but only 
to regulate it by preventing the illegal acquisition of In- 
dians by the traders and by requiring the traders to dispose 
of their Indians to the board itself which would then sell 
the Indians as it chose. 2 Their action was dictated by a 
double purpose : to prevent the traders kidnapping Indians 
belonging to the tribes friendly to the colony and so bring 
on dangerous Indian uprisings; and to obtain the profits 
of the trade for the colonial exchequer, which not infre- 
quently meant for their own profit. Humanitarian feeling 
for the Indians played no part in their action. The matter 
was made more complicated by the governor neglecting to 
sustain the action of the assembly. The explanation of his 
attitude is not difficult. He was accustomed to obtain sub- 
stantial perquisites from the sale of Indians. Valuable 
gifts were presented him by the traders for allowing them 
to remain unmolested. On one occasion Governor Nathan 

1 Logan, op. cit., i, p. 187. 

2 On being handed over to the board, the Indians were ordered to be 
sold at auction at a specified time and place to anyone who would 
promise to export them from the province within a specified time. 
In the meantime they were fed and sheltered at public expense. Logan, 
op. cit., i, p. 156. 



435] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: TRADE 183 

Johnson refused £200 offered by the assembly for his In- 
dian perquisites. 1 

As already observed, the check on the traders by the 
creation of the board of commissioners was so slight that 
they continued as before to traffic in Indians with impunity. 
Unprincipled traders were licensed and obtained Indians 
wherever and however they could. Some traders went 
so far as to keep a body of slaves with them in the In- 
dian nation where they traded, whom they sent out 
to attack other tribes for the purpose of obtaining cap- 
tives. 2 Attempts, of course, were made by the board to 
check the traffic. At its meetings Indian agents were tried 
for illegally reducing Indians to slavery, 3 and on one oc- 
casion it was ordered that a woman and child should be 
brought back from New York where they had been sold 
as slaves. 4 In 1711, an attempt was made to check the 
practice of the traders employing Indian slaves in the man- 
ner above mentioned, by issuing the following order to all 
traders: "You shall permit none of your slaves to go to 
war on any account whatsoever." B This order had as 
little effect as those which preceded it. The influence of 
the traders, indeed, among the friendly tribes could accom- 
plish the same result by stirring them up against other 
tribes. 6 

These and other efforts at regulation of the Indian slave 

1 Logan, op. cit., i, p. 171. Johnson became governor in 1703. 

* Ibid., i, p. 182. 

1 Logan, op. cit., i, pp. 175, 177, 180, 181, 182, 183 cites such trials. 
A letter of Steevens, missionary of the Society for the Propagation 
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in South Carolina, 1708, tells of the 
trial and acquittal of traders for the illegal enslavement of Spanish 
Indians. Records of S. P. G. F. P. 

4 Logan, op. cit., i, p. 180. 5 Ibid., i, p. 182. 

6 Ibid., i, pp. 183-186. Case of Alexander Long and Eleazer Wiggon 
who in revenge stirred up the Cherokee to destroy the Euchee. 



!8 4 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [436 

trade were alike fruitless. The general weakness of the 
province made it impossible to control the action of the 
traders on the frontier and outside the boundary of the 
province. Reports to the English Board of Trade made 
frequent mention of the state of affairs but conditions were 
not remedied. 1 On October 27, 1720, several merchants 
suggested to the Board of Trade, as a means of improving 
conditions in South Carolina, " to prohibit by still greater 
penalties the selling as a slave of any person of the nations 
in amity with us throughout the continent and to prevent 
abuse therein ", and declaring that " none but deputies 
from the public should have power to buy Indian slaves 
from those Indians in alliance with us as taken in war, 
which deputies on public account should be obliged to trans- 
fer them to the Islands there to be sold on condition not to 
be sent to the province again ". 2 

But the provincial authorities could not enforce these 
decrees, so the action of the traders continued unmo- 
lested until checked by other causes. Government officials 
continued to league with the traders. As late as 1754, a 
Catawba trader wrote to the board of commissioners as fol- 
lows : " The Catawbas held a council yesterday in the king's 
house, and have resolved to go with the English against the 
French. They want me and my people to go with them, 

1 On July 15, 1715, Mr. Byrd, one of the council of Virginia, ap- 
peared before the Board of Trade, and in reply to questions re- 
garding the hostilities lately committed by the Indians on Carolina, 
declared the action of the Indians to be due 10 the cupidity of the 
traders and the custom of encouraging the Indians to wage war on 
each other that the traders might buy the cap ives as slaves. Journal 
of the Board of Trade, B. P R. O., Co 391, 25 R., xvii, pp. 167-168. 
Similar statements were made by Mr. Banister, Ibid., p. 169, Mr. 
Kettleby, Ibid., p. 175 and Mr. Crawley, Ibid., p. 191. 

2 South Carolina Public Records, April to December, 1720, vii, p. 226; 
British Public Record Office, South Carolina, Board of Trade, Co. 5, 
358 A 14 and 15, October 27, 1720. 



437 ] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: TRADE ^5 

and we are willing to do so, even without pay, on one con- 
dition: that we be allowed to keep as our own property 
whatever plunder in the way of Indian slaves we may be 
able to capture." There are frequent intimations in the 
records that Indian slaves were still being held in South 
Carolina at this time, though their wholesale delivery and 
sale in Charleston had ceased. 1 

In Virginia trade with the Indians began at an early date, 
and the traffic in Indians became later a part of it. 2 The 
French reported, in 1701, that the English from Vir- 
ginia, established among the Chickasaw, had armed the 
savages with guns, joined with them in their expeditions 
against other people, especially the " Colipissas " (Aco- 
lapissa), and had sent the prisoners to be sold as slaves in 
the West Indies, keeping the children as slaves for them- 
selves. 3 

For some time the Virginia authorities did not recognize 
the right of the whites to enslave an Indian, no matter how 
obtained. In the session of 1657-1658, the assembly passed 
an act forbidding the stealing of Indian children or the 
buying of them from Indians or others for traffic, or the 
selling of them under any condition by the English, on pen- 
alty of 500 pounds of tobacco. 4 In 1662, the assembly 
passed an act declaring that if any Englishman should bring 
in any Indians as servants and assign them to any one else 
he should not sell them as slaves or for any longer time 

1 Logan, op. cit., i. p. 189. Though no estimate of the number of 
Indians enslaved during this long period in the south is possible, 
it was so large that the decay of the coast Indians has been at- 
tributed to it. Thomas, The Indians of North America, etc., ii, p. 95- 

1 Hening, op. cit., i. p. 482; ii. pp. 143. 155; Lawson, The History of 
North Carolina, p. 280. 

3 Margry, op. cit., iv. pp. lvi, 531, 544, 561. 

* Hening, op. cit., i. p. 455. 



!86 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [438 

than English servants of like age should serve by act of as- 
sembly. 1 The assembly evidently intended to enforce these 
acts, for in the session of 1662 it ordered a Powhatan In- 
dian to be freed who had been sold to the English by the 
chief of another tribe who, according to the assembly, had 
no right thus to sell him. 2 

By 1670 the assembly appears to have modified in a meas- 
ure its opinion regarding Indian slaves. An act of that 
year declared Indians taken in war by any other nation and 
sold by such nation to the English to be servants for life, 
if brought in by sea — if boys or girls, till thirty years old; 
if men or women, twelve years and no longer. 3 By a later 
act of 1682 the legislature repealed the act of 1670 and 
definitely decided who should be slaves. Among those spe- 
cified were all Indians obtained by purchase, in case they 
and their parents were not Christians at the time of their 
first being purchased by a Christian, although after- 
wards and before their importation into Virginia, they 
might have become converted to the Christian faith ; and 
all Indians thereafter sold by the neighboring Indians or 
any other trafficking in slaves. But in 1691 these acts in 
turn were repealed and after that date no Indian could 
legally be bought or sold as a slave in Virginia. 4 

Legislation, however, did not end the bringing of Indian 
slaves into the colony. Lawson records the sale in Virginia 
before 1700 of a young Indian woman brought from be- 
yond the mountains. 5 In 171 5. the Carolina settlers re- 
ported to the home government that the Sarrow Indians 
were selling in Virginia among other commodities slaves 

1 Hening, op. cit., ii, p. 143. 

2 Ibid., ii, p. 155; Tucker, A Dissertation on Slavery, p. 32. 
8 Hening, op. cit., ii, p. 283. * Ibid., iii, p. 69. 

5 Lawson, The History of North Carolina, p. 280. 



4 39J PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: TRADE jgy 

(presumably Indian as well as negro) taken from the Caro- 
lina colonists. 1 

Yet the Indian slaves brought into Virginia through the 
process of trade were never so numerous as in the Caro- 
linas or the New England colonies, because the trade of 
Virginia with the Indian country was never so extensive 
as that of the Carolinas, or with the Carolinas so extensive 
as that of New England. Neither was the industry of the 
Virginia colonists in the early days such as to require In- 
dian slaves from the traders. The export trade was largely 
carried on with the mother country instead of with the 
colonies. The whole system of trade was not conducive to 
traffic in Indians. 

In New England there was no direct traffic with the In- 
dian tribes such as existed in the south. Instead, Indian 
slaves were obtained by trade with the other colonies, 
notably the Carolinas. Commerce of this sort, abundant 
evidence of which is furnished by the newspapers of the 
time, flourished from the opening of the eighteenth cen- 
tury 2 until some time after the Tuscarora War. 

In Massachusetts the number of Indians imported from 
the south increased so rapidly that the colonial authorities 

1 North Carolina Colonial Records, ii, p. 252. 

7 A letter from the governor and council of South Carolina, May 7, 
1707, states: "We have also commerce with Boston, Rhode Island. 
Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia, to which places we export 
Indian slaves." Bancroft Papers relating to Carolina, in New York 
City Public Library, MSS., vol. i, 1662-1769; Thomas, The Indians of 
North America, etc., p. 95; Coffin, A Sketch of the History of New- 
bury, p. 336; Journal of the Board of Trade, Public Record Office. 
Co. 391, 25 R, xvii, p. 168. The colonial newspapers mention Carolina 
Indians in the following issues: Boston News Letter, July 31, 1704: 
October 28, 1706; March 31, 1707; November 15. 1708; August 6. 
1711; August 20, 1711; September 10, 1711 ; December 10, 1711; July 
5, 1714; September 17, 1716; March 11, 1717; New England Courant, 
August 19, 1723. 



iSg INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [ 44 o 

feared certain disastrous effects upon the colony from their 
presence. Accordingly, August 23, 171 2, an act was passed, 
the preamble of which set forth four reasons for its enact- 
ment : the Indian slaves imported from the south were 
" malicious, surly and revengeful " ; the industry of the 
colony was unlike that of the West Indies; with savage 
enemies at hand, it was dangerous to have bondsmen of a 
kindred race; the influx of the slaves discouraged the im- 
portation of Christian servants. Accordingly it was for- 
bidden to import " any Indian, male or female, by land or 
sea from any part or place whatever, to be disposed of, sold 
or left within the province ", on pain of forfeit to her 
Majesty's government, unless the offender "importing such 
Indians give security at the Secretary's office at £50 per 
head, to transport or carry out the same again within the 
space of one month next after their coming in, not to be 
returned back to this province ". It was also provided that 
the captain or commander of any ship bringing such In- 
dians into the province should, within twenty-four hours 
after the arrival of such ship, report the names, number 
and sex of such Indians, and give security of £50, under 
penalty of £50 for neglect to do so. 1 

On December 28, 1725, Massachusetts passed an act re- 
garding the exportation of Indians. This measure, like 
that of 1 712, was not humanitarian but self -protective. 
The act forbade the carrying of any Indian out of the 
province except by legal authority, or on condition of giv- 

1 Acts and Resolves, i, p. 698. July 15, 1715, Mr. Bannister of Vir- 
ginia appeared before the Board of Trade and declared that the sell- 
ing in New England of Indian slaves taken in war had caused so 
much injury by arous'ng the hostility of the neighboring natives, that 
the legislature of Massachusetts had been obliged to pass a law pro- 
hibiting the buying or selling of any Indians as slaves. Journal of the 
Board of Trade. Pttblic Record Office, Co. 391, p. 169. 



441 ] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: TRADE T89 

ing £100 security for the safe return of such Indian, due 
allowance being made for unforeseen exigencies. 1 

New Haven, also, in 1656, passed a general law ordering 
that no person should sell " any servant male or female of 
what degree soever ", out of the colony unless into some of 
the other three colonies belonging to the New England Con- 
federation, without leave and license from the authorities 
of that plantation to which such servant belonged, under 
penalty of a fine of £10 for each offense. 2 The measure 
could be applied to Indian slaves, though not intended speci- 
fically for that purpose. 

After the Tuscarora War the importation of " revenge- 
ful, warlike savages " alarmed the Connecticut colonists 
and led to definite legislative action regarding the matter. 
In view of the fact that several persons had brought into 
the colony Carolina Indians, " which have committed many 
cruel and bloody outrages " there, and " may draw off our 
Indians " to the extent of arousing hostilities if their im- 
portation were continued, in July, 171 5, the governor and 
council decided to prohibit the importation of Indian slaves 
until the meeting of the assembly, and to require each ship 
entering port with Indians on board to give a bond of £50 
to remove them from the colony within twenty days. 
Further they decided that Indians brought into the colony 
thereafter should be " kept in strictest custody ", and "pre- 
vented from communicating with other Indians ", unless 
the owner gave the same bond as above to take them out of 
the colony within twenty days. 3 

The following October, the general court, copying 

1 Acts and Resolves, ii, p. 364. The unforeseen exigencies were 
" death, danger of the seas, captivity or inevitable accident." 

* Hoadly, Records of the Colony or Jurisdiction of Neiv Haven from 
May, 1653, to the Union, e'c, p. 177. 

* Connecticut Colonial Records, v, p. 516. 



ig INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [442 

the Massachusetts act of 1712, made permanent the prohi- 
bition to import Indian slaves, since " divers conspiracies, 
outrages, barbarities, murders, burglaries, thefts, and other 
notorious crimes at sundry times, and especially of late, 
have been perpetrated by Indians and other slaves, . . . 
being of a malicious and vengeful spirit, rude and insolent 
in their behavior, and very ungovernable, the overgreat 
number of which, considering the different circumstances in 
this colony from the plantations in the islands and our hav- 
ing considerable numbers of Indians, natives of our country, 
. . . may be of pernicious consequence." An act was then 
passed decreeing the forfeiture of all Indians thereafter im- 
ported, and the payment of a fine of £50 by the shipmaster 
or any other person who might bring them. 1 Since this 
act did not stop the importation, another was enacted in 
1750 providing that " all Indians, male or female, of what 
age soever, imported or brought into this colony by sea or 
land, from any place whatever, to be disposed of, left or 
sold within this colony, shall be forfeited to the treasury 
of this colony, and may be seized and taken accordingly; 
unless the person or persons importing or bringing in such 
Indian or Indians shall give security to some naval officer 
of this colony of £50 per head, to transport or carry out of 
the same again, within the space of one month after their 
coming, not to be returned back again to this colony ". 2 

A similar act passed in 1774 forbade the importation of 
Indian, negro or mulatto slaves. The act stated that the 
cause of this legislation was the fact that the " increase of 
."-laves in this colony is injurious to the poor and inconveni- 
ent ". Any person, therefore, importing Indian, negro or 
mulatto slaves or knowingly bringing them as such, should 

1 Connecticut Colonial Records, v, pp. 534-535. 

2 Acts and Laws of the State of Connecticut, in America, edition of 
1784, p. 230. 



443] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: TRADE T g X 

forfeit to the treasurer of the colony the sum of £100 for 
each slave so imported or purchased. 1 

Rhode Island, in August, 1676, decreed that any person 
importing Indians into the colony without permission of 
the colonial authorities, should forfeit all right to them and 
pay a fine of £5 to the colony. Certain persons allowed to 
import such Indians were directed to pay half the sum of 
the sale to the treasurer or forfeit the Indians ; and all per- 
sons were forbidden to carry any Indians out of the colony 
without permission of the government, under penalty of 
f" 2 

As a special measure of protection against internal dis- 
turbances, the general assembly of Rhode Island, also, 
passed an act, January 4, 1704, forbidding, under penalty 
of forfeiture, the importation of Indians either to be kept 
or sold. And if any person brought Indians into the colony 
and set them at liberty under the pretense of bringing them 
as servants, such person would have to carry such Indians 
out of the colony at his own expense. If the person im- 
porting Indians failed to remove them, he should be seized 
by the authorities and dealt with according to law, as should 
also the person having them in his possession. 3 

The Indian wars in the southern colonies brought the 
same action in Rhode Island as in the other New England 
colonies. In July 5, 171 5, an act was passed to prohibit the 
importation of Indian slaves. The preamble of the act 
states that in both Rhode Island and the neighboring colo- 
nies, " conspiracies, insurrections, rapes, thefts and other 
execrable crimes " had been perpetrated by the Indian 
slaves, " and the increase of them in this colony daily dis- 

1 Connecticut Colonial Records, xiv, p. 329. 

' Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. 
ii, P. 550. 
• Ibid., iii, p. 483. 



I9 2 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [444 

courages the importing of white servants from Great 
Britain, etc., into this colony, which if not immediately 
remedied may prove very pernicious and troublesome to 
this government". The act, therefore, provided that within 
three months after its publication, all Indians, male or 
female, of whatever age, brought by land or sea, from any 
part or place, to be disposed of, sold or left within the 
colony, should be forfeited to his majesty, for and toward 
the support of the colony, unless the person who brought 
in such Indian or Indians, should give security of £50 per 
head to carry them out within the period of one month. 
All masters of ships, and others engaged in the traffic, were 
to record in the secretary's office within twenty-four hours 
after arrival the names, number and sex of the Indians and 
give security of £50 per head. Failure to meet this require- 
ment was to be punished by the confiscation of the In- 
dians. 1 This act was continued in force and was reenacted 
in the Digest of Laws in 1766. 

In New Hampshire a law was passed in 1714 forbidding 
the importation or bringing into the province, by sea or 
land, of any male or female Indian to be used as a servant 
or a slave. This was done because of the fact that " notor- 
ious crimes or enormities have of late been perpetrated 
and committed by Indians or other slaves, within sev- 
eral of her Majesty's plantations in America ", and be- 
cause the use of Indian slaves was considered " a dis- 
couragement to Christian servants ". 2 By the terms of the 
act, " Indians, male or female, of what age soever, that 
shall be imported or brought into this province by sea or 
land, every master of ship or other vessel, merchant or 

1 Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. 
iv, pp. 193-194- 

1 Laws of New Hampshire, edition of 1771, p. 53; edition of 1726, 
p. 49; Magazine of American History, xxi, 1889, p. 62. 



445] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: TRADE ^3 

person, importing or bringing into this province such In- 
dians, male or female, shall forfeit to her Majesty, for the 
support of the government, the sum of £10 per head, to be 
sued for and recovered in any of her Majesty's courts of 
record, ... to be paid into the treasury for the use of the 
aforesaid ". The occasion for this act was the same as that 
for the Massachusetts act of 17 12, namely, the bringing of 
southern Indian slaves to the northern colonies. The in- 
fluence of Massachusetts is readily seen, for Indian slaves 
could not have been so numerous as to have been a serious 
menace in a province of fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. 1 

A part of the small number of Indian slaves in the colony 
of New York came through the process of trade. 2 Indians 
from the Carolinas, for example, were sold there. 3 Since 
New York took certain legislative action regarding other 
Indians but never considered the importation of the south- 
ern Indians, it may be concluded that the number imported 
during the southern wars was never sufficiently large to 
cause any concern in the colony. Probably very few, if 
any, came into the colony through direct trade with the 
Indians themselves. 

Though the number of Indians imported into Pennsyl- 
vania was also small, it was large enough to lead to legis- 
lation concerning it. January 12, 1706, the general assem- 
bly passed an act to prevent the importation of Indian 
slaves from any other province or colony of America after 
March 25, 1706. The preamble of the act stated that the 
importation of Indians from Carolina and other places had 
given offense to the Indians of the province and caused 

1 McClintock, History of New Hampshire, p. 151. 

2 New York Colonial Documents, xii, p. 414. 

J Pennsylvania Archives, first series, xii, p. 280; Bancroft Papers 
relating to Carolina, in New York City Public Library, MSS., vol. i. 
1662-1769: Thomas. The Indians of North America, etc., p. 95. 



194 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [446 

them to become suspicious and dissatisfied. Perhaps a 
fellow feeling, or perhaps the fear that the custom of the 
whites using Indian slaves might affect their liberty, led 
the Indians, already in a state of disturbance, to protest 
against such importation. At the same time, the act de- 
clared " that no such Indian slave, as deserting his master's 
service elsewhere shall fly into this province, shall be un- 
derstood or construed to be comprehended within this act." 
A further exception was made in the case of those slaves 
with their children who, for the space of one year before 
such importation, could be proved to have been menial ser- 
vants in the family of the importer. Any slave brought 
into the province contrary to this law was declared forfeited 
to the government, and was to be set free or otherwise dis- 
posed of according to the will of the governor and council. 1 
The law of 1706 proved to be inadequate. 2 The con- 
tinued importation of Indians and the still existing fear of 
having ungovernable and dangerous slaves in the colony, 
led to the passage in 171 2 of a second act, already men- 
tioned, which levied a duty of £20 on every negro or 
Indian imported. s Masters of vessels bringing them in 

1 Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania, ii, p. 236; Pennsylvania Colonial 
Records, ii, p. 213; Bolles, Pennsylvania, Province and State, ii, p. 172. 

3 An Indian boy was said to have been imported into the colony in 
1708 contrary to the law. The matter was brought before ihe coun- 
cil, September 14, 1709, but was referred for lack of evidence. Penn- 
sylvania Colonial Records, ii, p. 490. It was perhaps due to this event 
that the council, February 21, 1710, decided that a case of infringe- 
ment of the act of 1706 should be tried before the Court of Common 
Pleas. Ibid., ii, pp. 508-509. 

* This was the first effort to restrain negro slavery in Pennsylvania. 
It was introduced into the assembly in the form of a petition by 
William Southeby, a resident of Maryland and a Roman Catholic. 
In 1696 he wrote papers against slavery. For a sketch of his life, 
see the article by Nathan Kite in vol. xxviii of The Friend, pp. 293, 
301, 309. 



447] PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT: TRADE T95 

were required to state their number and the name of 
the importer. Any negro or Indian in whose case 
these provisions were violated was to be seized and 
sold by provincial officers, and the money obtained 
from their sale paid to the treasurer for the use of 
the government. Duties paid upon any negro or Indian 
imported, but exported again within twenty days, however, 
were to be returned. One Samuel Holt was appointed to 
put the act into execution, and was given the necessary 
powers to use force, if necessary, to find concealed negroes 
and Indians whose owners had not complied with the terms 
of the act, and to dispose in public sale of those so captured. 
Owners could bring back their runaway negro or Indian 
slaves, and " gentlemen and strangers " traveling in the 
province were allowed to retain their negro or Indian 
slaves for a time not exceeding six months. 1 But the act 
was not put into operation, for it was repealed by the 
queen in council, February 20, 1714. 2 

1 Laws of Pennsylvania collected, etc., 1714, p. 165; Pennsylvania 
Colonial Records, ii, pp. 550, 553; Pennsylvania Statutes at Large, 
ii> P- 433 I Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives of 
the Province of Pennsylvania, ii, pp. 112, 114; Pennsylvania Historical 
Society Memoirs, i, p. 389. 

2 Burge, Commentaries on Co'onial and Foreign Laws, i, p. 7371 
Gordon, History of Pennsylvania, p. 166. 



CHAPTER VIII 
Other Processes of Enslavement 

It sometimes happened that the Indians sold to the whites, 
for a specified number of years, members of their own tribe 
as a punishment for some grievous offense. 1 Families 
sold some of their own members into temporary servi- 
tude to obtain money or other necessities, 2 or an individual 
Indian offered himself or his children as security for loans, 
and, on failure to meet the obligations, became the slaves 
of the creditors. 3 Occasionally an outcast or disgraced In- 
dian, having lost his position in the family or the tribe, sold 
himself into slavery to the whites in order to escape punish- 
ment at the hands of his own people and to secure future 
protection for himself. 

The treachery of the whites in refusing to give up the 
Indians at the expiration of the specified term of service, 
and the selling of them out of the country, caused consid- 
erable disturbance among the Indians in several colonies. 

1 Lawson, The History of North Carolina, p. 351, tells of Indians 
selling an Indian thief to the governor. 

1 Livermore, A History of Block Island, p. 60, mentions an instance 
of an Indian sold by his brothers for ten gallons of rum; and a second 
instance when another Indian was sold by his brothers and sisters 
for a term of thirteen years, for thirty gallons of rum and four 
cloth coats, the rum to be paid in annual instalments of one gallon 
each. The Indian was to have his board and clothing and two suits 
of apparel at the expiration of his bondage. Ibid., p. 60. 

3 Green, Springfield, etc., p. 153, quotes a deed for land, 1665, in 
which an Indian girl is given by her parents as security for payment. 
106 [448 



449] OTHER PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT jgy 

In 1660, a company of English from Massachusetts settled 
on Old Town Creek at its junction with Cape Fear River 
in the present North Carolina. The settlement was short 
lived, lasting something less than three years. One reason 
why the settlers left was the hostile attitude of neighbor- 
ing Indians who believed that the white men had shipped 
off as slaves some of the Indian children who had been en- 
trusted to their care, under the pretext of sending them 
north to be educated. 1 Though the charge has never been 
substantiated, it seems probable that it was not without 
cause. The lax state of morals among the early settlers 
would permit the kidnapping of Indians to be practiced by 
this little settlement as well as elsewhere. But whether 
the settlers were guilty or not on this particular occasion, 
the incident throws a certain light on the custom of the 
times through the fear which the Indians showed of such 
treatment. 2 Evidently the practice continued in North 
Carolina, for one of the grievances of the Tuscarora In- 
dians at the breaking out of the Tuscarora War was that 
their children who had been bound out for a limited time 
in English families, were, contrary to the spirit of the 
agreement, transported to other plantations and sold as 
slaves. 3 

Virginia was always comparatively lenient in her treat- 
ment of the Indians. Accordingly, its early legislation dealt 
with the matter of unjustly forcing Indians into slavery. 
In 1655, provision was made that Indian children could be- 
come indentured servants only by consent of their parents 
and for specified terms agreed upon, and such children were 

1 Williamson, The History of North Carolina, i, p. 95 ; Lawson, 
op. cit., pp. 73, 74; Hawks, History of North Carolina, second edition, 
«, P- 73- 

8 Williamson, op. cit., p. 95. 

8 New York Colonial Documents, v. p. 433. 



Ig 8 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [450 

to be educated in the Christian religion. 1 The following 
year, 1656, it was provided that Indian children brought 
into the colony as hostages should be assigned to masters 
by choice of their parents, but should not be made 
slaves. 2 Again, in 1658, it was decreed that any Indian 
children disposed of by their parents to a white man for 
" education and instruction in the Christian religion " f or 
for any other purpose, were not to be turned over to 
any other person upon any pretext whatever, and any 
such child was to be free at the age of twenty-five. 3 The 
fact that the legislation on the subject was repeated at such 
short intervals affords evidence of the continuance of the 
custom which it was intended to abolish. A letter of Gov- 
ernor Spotswood to Lord Dartmouth, March 11, 171 1, re- 
garding the Indian college, tells of his attempt to persuade 
Indians to allow their children to attend the college by re- 
mitting their annual tribute of skins, and declares that 
''they were a little shy of yielding to his proposal, and urged 
the breach of a former contract made long ago by this gov- 
ernment, when instead of their children receiving the 
promised education, they were transported, as they say, to 
other countries and sold as slaves ". 4 

Massachusetts sought to control the custom of the In- 
dians in apprenticing themselves and their children to the 
whites and the consequent abuse of the practice, by enacting, 
in 1700, a law requiring the consent of two or more justices 
of the peace to such a proceeding, so as to make sure that 
the terms of the agreement were reasonable. The justices 
of the regular courts were empowered to hear the com- 

1 Hening, op. cit., i, p. 410. 

2 Ibid., i, p. 396. 

* Ibid., i, p. 455- 

* Virginia Historical Society Collections, new series, i, p. 125. (This 
probably refers to the act of 1666). 



4 iji ] OTHER PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT igg 

plaint of an Indian with regard to any indenture or ap- 
prenticeship, and to settle the matter. 1 Similar acts were 
passed in 1718 2 and 1725.° The latter act provided a heavy 
fine for taking any children beyond the seas without due 
legal sanction, and further decreed that any indenture then 
existing of an adult Indian should be good for no longer 
than one year from the date of the passage of the law, 
except by legal approval as specified in the law. In 1763, 
another act, to continue as law for three years, was passed, 
forbidding any Marshpee Indian to bind out his or her 
child or children to any English person whatsoever by in- 
denture or any other way, in satisfaction of or as security 
for a debt, without the consent of the major part of the 
overseers, and declaring that every indenture or any in- 
strument whatever, or oral agreement whereby such 
child or children should be bound out contrary to the true 
intent and meaning of the act, should be adjudged null and 
void. 4 

Rhode Island, also, for the same purpose of preventing 
the conversion of apprenticeship into actual slavery, passed 
an act, June 15, 1730, requiring the assent of two justices 
to any bond of apprenticeship to which the Indians were 
parties. 5 If the Indian captives disposed of for periods of 

1 Acts and Resolves, i, p. 436. 
* Ibid., ii, p. 104. 

3 Ibid., ii, 364. Palfrey, History of New England, ii, p. 30, points 
out that the expression in the Massachusetts Body of Liberties, 
" willingly sell themselves," related to such as contracted to labor for 
a term of years, though in some cases, such term might have been 
for life. The engagement, whatever its duration, would be subject to 
transference to a third party, in which case the original contractor 
would be " sold." 

4 Acts and Resolves, iv, p. 641. 

5 Arnold, History of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, ii, 
p. 101 ; Rhode Island Historical Society Collections, vii, p. 232. 



200 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [452 

years by Rhode Island at the close of King Philip's 
War are to be considered as involuntary indentured ser- 
vants, then such abuses as the law of 1730 were intended to 
remedy existed with reference to those captives. By the 
terms of their disposal they were to be free after a tempo- 
rary period of service. But the colonists sometimes con- 
tinued to hold them in servitude after the specified term 
had expired. Furthermore, though no provision for such 
action was made by the colonial government, the masters 
of these servants held as slaves the children born of these 
Indians while in servitude. 1 

Conditions in New York in the eighteenth century serve 
to illustrate the same point. In July, 171 5, Colonel Heath- 
cote wrote home to Secretary Townsend : " The Indians 
complain that their children, who were many of them bound 
out for a limited time to be taught and instructed by the 
Christians, were, contrary to the intent of their agreement, 
transferred to other plantations and sold for slaves, and I 
don't know but there may be some truth in what they 
allege ". 2 The authorities were aware of the danger caused 
by the colonists' action, and in 1750 Governor Clinton or- 
dered all Indian children held as pledges or slaves, to be 
returned to their families. 3 Johnson, the Indian commis- 
sioner, was much pleased with the governor's action and 
January 22, 1750, wrote him: " I am very glad that your 
excellency has given orders to have the Indian children re- 
turned, who are kept by the traders as pawns or pledges 
as they call it, but rather stolen from them (as the parents 
came at the appointed time to redeem them, but they sent 
them away before hand), and as they were children of our 

1 Early Records of the Town of Providence, xvi, p. 244. Weeden, 
Early Rhode Island, p. 173, mentions such slaves in 1750. 

2 New York Colonial Documents, v, p. 433. 
• Ibid., vi, 546. 



453 ] OTHER PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT 2 OI 

Friends and Allies, and if they are not returned next 
Spring, it will confirm what the French told the Six Na- 
tions (viz.) : that we looked upon them as slaves or negroes, 
which affair gave me a great deal of trouble at that time to 
reconcile ". Evidently the holders were disinclined to obey 
the governor's order, for Johnson cited in his letter two 
cases where such return had not been made, and from which 
he feared disturbance. 1 To what extent the governor's 
decree was effective would be hard to state. There cer- 
tainly were Indian slaves in the colony after its publication. 
" A list of the Negro, Indian and Mulatto Slaves within the 
district whereof Benjamin Smith is Captain at Hempstead 
in Queens County taken the first day of April, 1755," 
shows that Indian slaves were being used on Long Island 
at that date, 2 and it seems not unlikely that some of them 
might have been obtained by abuse of indenture. 

Another process of enslaving Indians was that which 
had to do with the infliction of punishment for offenses 
against law and order. The custom of sentencing Indians 
to enslavement at home, or to transportation and enslave- 
ment abroad, for such offenses was general throughout the 
colonies. Such a sentence came about in one of two ways : 
either the colonial legislature enacted a law which imposed 
enslavement as the punishment for a given offense; or a 
colonial court acting on its own initiative used it to that end. 

In South Carolina, even after the wholesale deportation 
of captive and kidnapped Indians for slaves had practically 
ceased, natives were sometimes sentenced to slavery by the 
assembly as punishment for crime of which the accused 
was convicted or suspected. Such an instance occurred, 
May 29, 1725, when it was " Ordered that Colonel Alex- 

1 New York Colonial Documents, vi, p. 546. 

* List given in Ross, History of Long Island, i, p. 125. 



20 2 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [454 

ander Parris, Public Receiver, do forthwith sell the Indian 
now in jail for the supposed murder of a white man to the 
northward of the province, in order that he may be trans- 
ferred to Bermuda, Jamaica or Barbadoes, or some other 
cf the West India Islands." 1 Again on May 31, 1732, 
" His Excellency having asked the advice of the Council in 
relation to an Indian delivered up by her own nation, now 
in jail of this town, on suspicion of having murdered an 
Indian trader; it is resolved, that as it could not be fully 
proved that she was the person that murdered the said In- 
dian trader, but strong presumptions appearing ordered 
that Colonel Parris cause her to be transported and sold, 
for the use of the Publick." 2 A similar instance occurred 
in Massachusetts in 1666 when the general court sentenced 
a Pequot to slavery for life as punishment for the murder 
of a white colonist by the Indians. 3 

In Virginia, as a measure of protection to property 
rights upon a complaint of damages committed by Indians, 
the assembly voted in 1660 that the plaintiff in the case be 
given the right, provided satisfaction were not made, to 
sell as many Indians out of the country as the court might 
prescribe. 4 Another act of similar character was passed in 
1722 after the treaty of Albany, when the assembly voted 
that no Virginia Indian should cross the Potomac River, 
and that none of the Five Nations or their allies should go 
beyond that boundary. Any offenders were to be punished 

1 Rivers, Topics in the History of South Carolina, p. 51. 

2 Ibid , p. 51. It will be noted that in bo h the South Carolina cases 
cited, the sentence of transportation and slavery was passed before 
the Indians concerned were proved guilty of the charges against them. 

3 Winthrop, Journal, Savage edi ion, i, p. 233 (editor's note) ; Hildreth, 
A History of the United States from the Discovery of the Continent, 
etc., i, p. 239.. 

* Hening, op. cit., ii, p. 15. 



455] OTHER PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT 203 

by death, or be transported and sold as slaves. 1 In Massa- 
chusetts, also, the question of runaway slaves who sought 
refuge among the Indians, led the general court, June 2, 
1 64 1, to pass an order by which it was declared to be the 
mind of the court " that if the Indians send not back our 
runaways, then, by commission of the governor and any 
three of the magistrates, to send and take so many as to 
satisfy for the want of them and for the charge of send- 
ing for them ". 2 The order, like that of the Virginia legis- 
lature, meant that any master might be authorized to right 
himself upon the Indians for wrong done him by them. 

Not only the higher courts, but the lower courts as well, 
were accustomed to make use of this form of punishment 
In 1678, the court of Sandwich, Plymouth, directed that 
three Indians convicted of breaking open a house and steal- 
ing therefrom, should be perpetual slaves, and empowered 
the owner of the house and stolen property to " make sale 
of them in New England or elsewhere, as his lawful slaves, 
for the term of their lives." 3 

Their love of strong drink not infrequently led the In- 
dians into temporary servitude, and served as a means by 
which the colonists, if so minded, could force them into 
that condition. On one occasion Boston was building a 
fort on an island in the harbor. Wages were high and 
economy was desirable. The general court, therefore, or- 
dered that for drunkenness the Indians should not be 
whipped, but sent to this island to work for ten days. The 

1 Hening, op. cit., iv, p. 104; Historical Documents from the Old 
Dominion, No. 3, p. 258. The governor and counc'l, without a jury, 
were to act as a court for the trial of such offenders. 

* Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massa- 
chusetts Bay in New England, i, p. 329. 

* Freeman, The History of Cape Cod, ii, p. 72; Thacher, History of 
the Town of Plymouth, p. 149. 



204 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [456 

Indians protested and preferred whipping as punishment, 
but their complaint received no attention. 1 

On March 8, 1683, the Plymouth general court decreed 
that a certain Indian should serve as a slave for a specified 
time because of a judgment against him. 2 At a council 
held in Boston, also, June 14, 1686, upon notification of the 
keeper of the prison that a sentence of transportation of an 
Indian had not been carried into effect, the treasurer was 
ordered to sell the Indian for a period not exceeding seven 
years in satisfaction of the judgment against him. 3 The 
Massachusetts council records of January 18, 1695, tell of 
an Indian accused of " corresponding with and adhering 
to the Indian enemy " who was transported and sold for 
the offense. 4 A similar instance occurred in 1696, when an 
Indian was condemned " to be transported beyond the 
seas as a dangerous person and sold "/' On December 1, 
1705, the Massachusetts deputies sent in a bill providing 
that fornication or marriage of white men with negroes 
or Indians should be punished by selling the colored of- 
fenders out of the colony as slaves. Through the inter- 
cession of Samuel Sewall, the Indians were dropped from 
the bill which was then passed as applying to blacks and 

1 Calendar of State Papers, colonial series, ix, p. 307; Cook, Drum- 
mond Island, p. 70. To retain their services for a time longer than 
that specified in the sentence of the court, the whites were accustomed 
on the ninth day to furnish the Indians with rum and get them drunk 
so that they must remain ten days longer. The practice was so long 
con'inued that at one time there was several hundreds of Indians on 
the island, " many whereof had been by the practices aforesaid kept 
about three months." 

1 Plymouth Colony Records, vi, p. 104. 

1 Manuscript Council Records of Massachusetts, ii, p. 40; Laws of 
New Hampshire, Provincial Period, i, p. 116. 
4 Manuscript Council Records of Massachusetts, ii. p. 310. 
'Freeman, The History of Cape Cod, i, p. 714. 



4 57] OTHER PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT 205 

mulattoes. 1 The records mention other instances in 1713 - 
and 1 776 s when Indians were sold as punishment for 
crime, the latter case being one of theft. An incident oc- 
curred in 1 72 1 when the sentence of an Indian imprisoned 
in Boston was changed from imprisonment to a term of 
servitude. 4 Another Indian, in 1727, was sold for a term of 
years to a resident of the colony to serve a sentence for 
debt. 5 In 1739, on petition of the sheriff of Barnstaple 
county, the Massachusetts general court impowered the jus- 
tices of that county to sell an Indian prisoner convicted of 
manslaughter and sentenced to imprisonment " to any of 
his majesty's good subjects for a term not exceeding ten 
years, for the most he will fetch ", in order to get money to 
pay the cost of prosecuting the prisoner and the charges 
of his imprisonment. 6 

The Indians of Rhode Island gave much trouble by steal- 
ing the goods and cattle of the colonists. To prevent it. 
a law was passed, 1659, to the effect that, if the damage 
exceeded twenty shillings, the convict might be sold as a 
slave to any English plantation abroad unless he made res- 
titution. 7 Instances are not lacking in which the law of 
1659 was put into effect. On one occasion (between 1671 

1 Sewall's Diary, in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 
series 5, vi, p. 143. 

2 Manuscript Council Records of Massachusetts, viii, No. 169. 

3 Ibid., ccxxxii, No. 1. 

* Boston Public Library Monthly Bulletin, vii, February, 1002, p. 74. 
This Indian was stolen from his owner by pirates and carried to 
South Carolina, but escaped and returned to New England. He was 
about to return to his master to serve out his term of servitude when 
he was seized by two white men of Massachusetts and enslaved 
by them. 

5 Manuscript Council Records of Massachusetts, xxxi, No. 148. 

6 Acts and Resolves, xii, p. 602. 

7 Arnold, History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations, i, p. 271. 



206 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [458 

and 1685) an Indian convicted of breaking into a house 
and of beating and wounding a servant, was sentenced to 
pay a fine, or, if payment were not made in three months, 
to be sold as a slave in Barbadoes. 1 In 1676, the general 
court provided that all Indians who should come upon any 
island in the bay, must have written permission so to do 
from the committee appointed to dispose of Indians, with- 
out which they would be liable to be sold into servitude. 2 

The first code of Connecticut laws, 1650, followed the 
Massachusetts Body of Liberties in authorizing enslave- 
ment as a mode of punishment. 3 In 1650, certain Indians 
who failed to make satisfaction for injuries were ordered 
to be seized and delivered to the injured party, " either to 
serve or to be shipped out ... as the case will justly 
bear ". 4 In 1660, the general court was empowered by the 
United Colonies to send a company of men to obtain satis- 
faction from the Narraganset for certain depredations upon 
the settlers. Four of the guilty Indians were to be de- 
manded and sent to Barbadoes to be sold as slaves. 6 

Not only did the New England colonies take sep- 
arately such legislative action regarding the enslave- 
ment of Indians, but Plymouth, Massachusetts, Con- 
necticut, and New Haven acting together as the New 
England Confederation, took similar action. Alleged 
trespassing of Indians upon English territory, and the 

1 Durfee, Gleanings from the Indicial History of Rhode Island, p. 
131, in Rhode Island Historical Tracts, No. 18. 

2 Arnold, op. cit., i, p. 423. 

3 The code provided that, in case an Indian should fail to give the 
satisfaction required in case of convic ion, the court might sentence 
him to serve the injured party as a slave, or to be shipped out of the 
country in exchange for negroes. Connecticut Colonial Records, i, 
P 532. 

* Hildreth, The History of the United States, i, p. 372. 

8 Orcutt, The History of the old Town of Derby, Connecticut, p. lvii. 



459 ] OTHER PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT 2 oy 

fear of a Narraganset war, led the United Colonies, 
in 1646, to pass an order authorizing, upon complaint 
of trespass by Indians, the seizure of any of them 
who should " entertain, protect or rescue the offender ". 
" And because it will be chargeable keeping Indians in 
prison, and if they should escape, they are like to prove 
more insolent and dangerous after, that upon such seizure, 
the delinquent or satisfaction be demanded of the saga- 
more or plantation of Indians guilty or accessory as before, 
and if it be denied, that the magistrates of the jurisdiction 
deliver up the Indians seized to the party or parties in- 
damaged, either to serve or to be shipped out in exchange 
for negroes as the case will justly bear." The commis- 
sioners agreed that this measure, though just, was severe, 
and that it might lead to the Indians seizing the English 
in return; but they could see no better means of preserv- 
ing the peace of the colony. As a measure of fairness, 
therefore, they decreed that before any seizure of Indians 
was made, a copy of the declaration should be published 
and given to the particular sagamore. Copies were accord- 
ingly given to four leading sachems. 1 

A further process of enslavement was connected with 
questions of birth. By the recognized common law of na- 
tions, the civil law. and the Jewish law, the children of a 
slave mother became at birth the property of the mother's 
owner. Nobody thought of the children of slaves being 
free. Yet, to make certainty doubly sure, the colonial laws 
from time to time considered the matter and declared the 
common law a pa~t of colonial legislation. 2 South Caro- 
lina, for example, by an act of 1712, 3 repeated in 1722, 4 

1 Plymouth Colony Records, ix, p. 71 ; Connecticut Colonial Records, 
>. P- 532. 

* Moore's article in Historical Magazine, x, p. 189. 

3 The Statutes at Lvqe of South Carolina, vii, p. 352. 

* Ibid., vii, p. 371. • 



208 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [460 

and 1735, 1 declared that, with the exception of certain in- 
dividuals freed by the government, " all negroes, mulattoes, 
mustizoes, or Indians which at any time heretofore have 
been sold, or now are held or taken to be, or hereafter shall 
be bought and sold as slaves, are hereby declared slaves ; 
and they and their children, are hereby made and declared 
slaves to all intents and purposes." Another act of 1740, 
though worded differently, decreed a similar condition for 
the children of negro, mulatto, mustee and Indian slave 
mothers. 2 In 1705, Virginia similarly declared all children 
bond or free according to the condition of their mothers; 3 
and, in 1723, decreed that children of female mulattoes or 
Indians obliged by law to serve till the age of thirty or 
thirty-one should serve the master or mistress of such 
mulatto or Indian until they should attain the same age as 
that up to which the mother was obliged by law to serve. 4 

A Maryland act of 1663 differs from the acts just men- 
tioned by stating that " all children born of any negro or 
other slave, shall be slaves as their fathers were for the 
term of their lives." Another section of this same act pro- 
vides that " whatsoever freeborn woman shall intermarry 
with any slave, from and after the last day of the present 
assembly, shall serve the master of such slave during the 
life of her husband; and that all the issue of such free- 
born woman, so married, shall be slaves as their fathers 

1 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vii, p. 385. 

* Ibid., vii, p. 397. The act decreed that " all negroes and Indians 
(free Indians in amity with this government, and negroes, mulattoes, 
mustizoes, who are now free, excepted), mulattoes or mustizoes who 
now are or shall hereafter be, in this Province, and all their issue and 
offspring, born or 10 be born, shall be, and they are hereby declared 
to be, and remain forever hereafter, absolute slaves and shall follow 
the condition of the mother." 

• Hening, op. cit., iii, p. 460. 
4 Ibid., iv, p. 133. 



4 6i] OTHER PROCESSES OF ENSLAVEMENT 209 

were." x Though the law was of brief duration, persons 
born of the union between slaves and free white women, 
and the descendants of such persons, were held in slavery- 
down to 1 79 1, when the highest court of the state decided 
that for want of proof concerning the white woman w!k> 
originally married a slave, her descendants were not slaves, 
and could not be legally held as such. 2 A later Maryland 
act, June 2, 1692, provided that all children born or there- 
after to be born of slaves within the province were to be 
slaves for the term of their natural lives. 3 Nothing is said 
in the act of children one of whose parents was free. The 
act was repealed in 1715. 4 New York, on its own part, in 
1706, decreed that any negro, Indian, mulatto or mustee 
child should follow the condition of the mother and be 
esteemed a slave "to all intents and purposes whatsoever." 5 
Frequent incidental mention, also, is found in the docu- 
ments of the time and in newspaper advertisements to 
slaves " born in the house ". 6 

1 Stroud, A Sketch of the Laws relating to Slavery, etc., p. 2. 

1 Ibid. 

s Archives of Maryland, xiii, p. 546. 

* Maxcy, The Laws of Maryland, etc., i, p. 115; Bacon, Laws of 
Maryland. 

5 Colonial Laws of New York, edition of 1894, i, p. 598 ; Trott, Laws 
of the British Plantations in America, etc., p. 273. 

8 Moore, in Historical Magazine, x, p. 189. The Reverend John 
Davenport, in a letter to the younger Winthrop, June, 1666, spoke 
of the baptism of slaves " born in the house." Historical Magazine, 
x, p. 59. The instance of Mr. Maverick of Noddle's Island attempting 
to breed slaves is another example of the general custom of the time 
of holding the children of slave women as slaves. Littleton v. Tuttle, 
in Massachusetts Reports, iv, p. 128; Cushing, Reports, x, p. 410. Felt, 
in Statistical Association Collections, i. p. 586. Palfrey, History of 
New England, ii, p. 30, states that no person was ever born into legal 
slavery in Massachusetts. See also Moore, Notes on the History of 
Slavery in Massachusetts, pp. 24-25, and Steiner, op. cit., pp. 18-19. 



2io INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [462 

Certain judicial decisions rendered in the trial of cases in 
federal and state courts, finally, offer clear indication as to 
the legality of holding in slavery the children of Indian 
slave mothers. 1 Of these decisions the one rendered by the 
Virginia court of appeals in 183 1 is particularly instructive. 
In part it runs as follows : " I cannot for a moment doubt 
the propriety of the former decisions of this court, and of 
the instructions under consideration, that proof that a party 
is descended in the female line from an Indian woman, and 
especially a native American, without anything more is 
prima facie proof of his right to freedom liable to be re- 
pelled by proof that his race has been immemorially held 
in slavery; which may be in turn rebutted by the consid- 
eration of the ignorance and helpless condition of persons 
in that situation, aided by other circumstances, such as that 
many such were bound by law to a service equivalent, in 
all respects, to a state of temporary slavery, until they at- 
tained the age of thirty-one years; and in many cases (ac- 
cording to circumstances existing in almost every case) for 
an uncertain term beyond that age." 2 

'Pirate v. Dalby, 1786 (Pennsylvania), in 1 Dallas, second edition, 
p. 167; Wilson et al. v. Hinkley et al., 1787 (Connecticut), in Kirby, 
p. 202; The State v. Van Waggoner, 1797 (New Jersey), in 1 Halstead, 
P- 374! Jenkins v. Tom, 1792 (Virginia), in 1 Washington, p. 123; 
Coleman v. Dick, 1793 (Virginia), in 1 Washington, p. 233; Hudgins v. 
Wright, 1806 (Virginia), in 1 Hening and Munford, second edition, 
p. 134; Pallas et al. v. Hill et al.. 1807 (Virginia), in 2 Hening and 
Munford, second edition, p. 149; Gregory v. Baugh. 1831 (Virginia), 
in 2 Leigh, p. 665. 

2 Wheeler, op. cit., p. 20; 2 Leigh, p. 665. 



CHAPTER IX 

Property Relations 

Though the practices connected with the institution of 
negro and Indian slavery in the Spanish colonies were 
known to the English colonists, yet at first the latter did not 
see fit to impose the status of slavery upon the Indians 
brought into the colonies by way of trade with the Spanish 
islands or otherwise, but were content to retain possession 
of the services of their subject Indians without taking pos- 
session of their persons through legal declarations impos- 
ing the status of slavery upon them. 1 Such Indians were 
held in the status of servitude, a condition which stood 
" midway between freedom and absolute subjection ", and 
which was the " historic base upon which slavery, by the 
extension and addition of incidents, was constructed." 2 
The right of ownership of the services of both negroes and 
Indians was, after all, what the colonists most desired, and 
appeared to promise satisfaction in this instance as it had 
in the case of the white indentured servants. Indian ser- 
vitude not only preceded Indian slavery, but even con- 
tinued after the institution of slavery was fully developed. 
This is true of most, if not all, of the English-American 
colonies. It is certainly true of Maryland, Massachusetts, 
Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina and 
South Carolina. Statutory recognition of slavery in gen- 
eral by the English-American colonies occurred as follows: 

1 Ballagh, o[>. cit., p. 31. 

2 Ibid., pp. 31-32. 

4S3] 2I1 



212 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [464 

by Massachusetts in 1641 ; by Connecticut in 1650; by Vir- 
ginia in 1 66 1 ; by Maryland in 1663; by New York and 
New Jersey in 1664; by South Carolina in 1682; by Penn- 
sylvania and Rhode Island in 1700; by North Carolina in 
1715 ; and by Georgia in 1755. 1 But the legislation of these 
dates did not always include the subject Indians. When 
such was the case, however, according to a strict legal inter- 
pretation, any subject Indian, if enslaved, had the right to 
demand his freedom from the colonial courts. Such an 
instance existed in the case of Virginia where the acts of 
1655 an d 1661 specifically forbade Indian slavery and guar- 
anteed to the subject Indians all the rights of servants. 2 

The recognition of Indian as well as negro slavery by 
customary law came somewhat earlier than by statute law. 
With the extension of the period of servitude to a life term, 
the change from servitude to slavery was practically com- 
pleted so far as customary law was concerned. Only the 
enactment of legal provisions sanctioning the change was 
necessary to complete the process. The common use in 
subsequent law of the terms " servant for life ", " per- 
petual servant ", and " bond servant " as synonymous with 
the term " slave " shows how little change was really ef- 
fected in the condition of the servant. Such change con- 
sisted chiefly, from the standpoint of the master, in the 
extension of his right to service, and consequently in the 
extension of his obligation of protection and maintenance, 
and what was still more important, in the acquisition of the 
right of possession of the offspring of his slaves. From the 

1 Hurd, The Law of Freedom and Bondage in the United States. 
i, pp. 249, 257, 260, 262, 265, 266, 268, 269, 275, 276, 283, 288, 295-297, 
310; Ballagh, op. cit., p. 35. 

* Ballagh, op. cit., p. 35. Indian slavery in Virginia was not, then, 
actually in existence un'il so decreed by the laws of 1670, 1676 and 
1682. Hening, op. cit., ii, pp. 280, 283, 346, 404. 



4 6 5 ] PROPERTY RELATIONS 2 I$ 

standpoint of the slave, it meant little more than the loss 
of the right to ultimate liberty, political and civil, and the 
extension of his right to protection and maintenance. 1 

The legislation which marked the changing status varied 
in nature in the several colonies. In certain colonies the 
slavery status was simply recognized as being in existence 
by certain acts relating to slaves, without any formal dec- 
laration to the effect that Indians held in servitude should 
be considered slaves. In other colonies the condition of 
slavery as applied to Indians was legalized by general acts 
relating to slavery in general, and not specifying either In- 
dians or negroes. In still other colonies the holding of 
Indians in a condition of actual slavery was legalized by 
legislative acts relating directly to Indians. An act of this 
latter character was passed by New York in 1678 declar- 
ing that all Indians that should come to, or be brought into 
the province at any time during the succeeding six months, 
should be sold as slaves for the benefit of the government. 2 
South Carolina, in an act of 1712 relating to the "better 
ordering and governing of negroes and slaves ", provided 
that " all negroes, mulattoes, mestizoes or Indians which 
have at any time heretofore been sold, or now are held and 
taken to be, or hereafter shall be brought and sold as slaves, 
are hereby declared slaves to all intents and purposes; ex- 
cepting all such negroes, mulattoes, mestizoes or Indians 
which heretofore have been, or hereafter shall be for some 
particular merit, made and declared free, either by the Gov- 
ernor and Council of this province, or by their respective 

1 Ballagh, op. cit., pp. 27-37. The status of servitude had distinct 
recognition in statute law as follows: Virgin'a, 1619; Massachusetts, 
1630-1636; Maryland, 1637; Connecticut, 1643; Rhode Island, 1647; 
North Carolina, 1665; Pennsylvania, 1682; Georgia, 1732. Ballagh, 
op. cit., p. 36. 

* Bartram, Retrographs, p. 42. 



214 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [466 

owners and masters; and also, excepting all such negroes, 
mulattoes, mestizoes or Indians as can prove they ought 
not to be sold as slaves "- 1 The acts, already mentioned 
in other connections, authorizing the enslavement of In- 
dian captives taken in war, the holding in slavery of such 
captives when obtained in trade from sources outside the 
colony, and the enslavement of free Indians by the colonial 
authorities as punishment for misdemeanors and crimes, 
are also cases in point. 

From the standpoint of English law the action of the 
colonial legislatures enacting the slavery status had no legal 
sanction. It was based on the interpretation of the com- 
mon law of nations, that is, it was carried on in accordance 
with a " law not promulgated by legislation, and rested 
upon prevalent views of universal jurisprudence, or the 
law of nations supported by the express or implied au- 
thority of the home government " concerning the institu- 
tion of slavery. 2 So the colonies, by a gradual process of 
changing conditions and legal enactments, substituted the 
slavery status for the servitude status without molestation 
from the home government, which was interested in col- 
onial slave conditions and legislation only when the African 
slave trade was involved. So long, therefore, as the enact- 
ment of colonial laws decreeing the slavery status did not 
interfere with that trade, the home government gave no 
attention to the matter. As for Indian slavery per se, if 
England had given it any attention whatever, she would 
probably have considered it a purely colonial matter. Since 

1 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vii, p. 352. The act was 
repeated in 1722. Ibid., vii, p. 371. 

* Hurd, op. cit., i, p. 225. Not until 1772 did the highest English 
court declare the common law of England incompa'ible with slavery, 
and neither recognizing nor permitting its existence in England. The 
decision had no relation to the colonies. 



^7] PROPERTY RELATIONS 21 5 

it was never sufficiently extensive to interfere with negro 
slavery and the slave trade, it never received any attention 
from the home government, and so existed as legal because 
never declared illegal. An authority on the legal status of 
early American slavery states : " It may be laid down as a 
legal axiom, that in all governments in which the municipal 
regulations are not absolutely opposed to slavery, persons 
already reduced to that state may be held in it, and we also 
assume, as a first principle, that slavery has been permitted 
and tolerated in all the colonies established in America by 
European powers, as relates to blacks and also as relates to 
Indians in the first periods of conquest and colonization. 
This accounts in a measure for the absence of any legisla- 
tive act of European powers for intruding slavery into the 
American dominions." 1 Hence it followed that the Eng- 
lish colonial charters authorizing the colonial legislatures 
to make laws, gave no license as such to enslave. 2 

With the change from the status of servitude to the 
status of slavery, certain of the attributes of the former 
condition were continued and connected with the latter. 
Chief of these, and the fundamental idea on which the 
change was effected, was the conception of property right 
which, from the idea of the ownership of an individual's 
service resting upon contract implied or expressed, came 
to be that of the ownership of an individual's person. 

1 Wheeler, op. cit., p. 15. Had there been any objection raised by 
the mother country to the enslavement of Indians on the ground of 
illegality, the colonists could have fallen back on the recognized right 
of enslaving captives in war. By a legal fiction the Indians could at 
any time have been considered in a state of war, their lands con- 
fisca'ed, and their persons seized and held for disposal at the 
pleasure of the whites. Such was the legal argument used by England 
in justification of enslaving the African negroes. 

* For a discussion of the neglect to define the Indians' rights in the 
various letters patent and charters, see the Eighteenth Annual Report 
of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pt. ii, p. 550. 



2I 6 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [468 

Indian slaves were recognized as property in all the Eng- 
lish colonies, and were openly bought and sold at both 
public and private sales like negroes and other property. 1 
They were advertised in the colonial newspapers with state- 
ments of their qualifications and ability for work, their ages, 
and sometimes descriptions of their personal appearance. 
From the New England newspapers it is apparent that for a 
time dealers advertised such slaves for sale openly in their 
own names. 2 Later the possible purchaser was directed by the 
advertisement to "inquire of the Printer and know further", 
or to " inquire at the Post Office ". 3 It was not uncommon 
for slaves offered for sale to choose their future owner 
from those who desired to purchase them, 4 or to approve 
the bill of sale. 6 

Like other property, real or personal, Indian slaves could 
be given away by word of mouth or by " last will and tes- 
tament ". One of the earliest of such wills on record is that 
of Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts, made in 
1639, by which he gave to his son Adam, Governor's Island 
and with it " also my Indians thereon ". 6 In South Caro- 

1 Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, series 3, i, p 27, 
contains a bill of sale of an Indian man, given by Governor John 
Winthrop of Massachusetts to John Mainford of Barbadoes. 

* As typical examples of this kind of advertisement, see Boston 
Gazette, December 15, 1718; Pennsylvania Gazette. March 7, 1732; 
New England Weekly Journal, March 5, 1733; Boston News Letter, 
August 20, 1711; January 5, 1719 ; December 28, 1720. 

'Boston News Letter, July 2, 171 1; October II, 1708; October 6, 
1737; February 11, 1717 ; November 22, 1708; May 24, 1714; Boston 
Gazette or Weekly Journal, November 15, 1748; New England Week'y 
Journal, February 24, 1729. 

4 Stiles, A History of the City of Brooklyn, etc., i, p. 233 ; New York 
Mercury, June 12, 1758. 

5 Early Records of Portsmouth, p. 434; Currier, History of New- 
bury, p. 254. 

6 Winthrop, Life and Letters of John Winthrop, ii, p. 252; Winsor, 
The Memorial History of Boston, i, p. 489. 






469] PROPERTY RELATIONS 217 

lina where Indian slaves were most numerous, the records 
of their disposal by will are frequent. 1 The custom, in fact, 
was universal in the colonies. 2 

Indian slaves were listed in the various colonies in the 
inventories of estates along with indentured servants of un- 
expired terms 3 and negro slaves. 4 They were taken like 
other chattels in payment for debt, and in certain of the 
colonies provision was made by law regarding the matter. 
South Carolina, February 7, 1690, decreed that a slave was 
to be taken like any other chattel as payment for debt. 5 
Maryland, 1729, passed an act to the effect that no slave 
should be taken for any debt due from the deceased so long 
as there should be any other goods sufficient for the pur- 
pose. 6 In those colonies where legislation makes no men- 
tion of the matter, it is known from the history of negro 
slavery that the custom was similar to that of Carolina. 

The proximity of the Indian tribes to the colonists, 
furthermore, afforded a condition most suitable for the es- 
cape of Indian slaves. Individual testimony, frequent ad- 
vertisements in the colonial newspapers giving descriptions 

1 See South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, vii, p. 
169, (1691) ; x, p. 85, (1694) ; v, p. 98, (1710) ; v, p. 164, (1730) ; vi, 

p. 173. (1732) ; v, p. 105, (1734) ; vi, p. 117, (1735) ; v, p. 218, (1753) ; 

v, p. 113, (1765) ; viii, p. 214, (1769) ; vi, p. 25, (1802). 

* Charleston Year Book, 1900, p 42 (appendix), cites a will in New 
London, Connecticut (1711) disposing of Indian slaves. Schuyler, 
Colonial New York, ii, p. 293, cites the will of Arient Schuyler, De- 
cember, 1724, bequeathing to each of his two daughters an Indian 
slave woman. February 7, 1690, South Carolina passed a law that 
slaves should descend by inheri ance like any other property. The 
Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vii, p 343. 

8 See Weeden, Economic History of New England, i, p. 292. 

4 See Early Records of Providence, Rhode Island, xvi, p. 244. 

5 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vii, p. 343. 

6 Bacon, Law's of Maryland, e'c. Both these laws related to slaves 
in general, and did not specify either negro or Indian slaves. 



218 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [470 

of fugitive Indian slaves and offering rewards for their 
capture and return, and the amount of colonial legislation 
concerning both negro and Indian runaway slaves, show 
that Indians held in servitude took frequent advantage of 
the opportunities at hand for their escape, and that their 
owners used all possible means to regain their lost prop- 
erty. At the time following the Pequot War, Mason com- 
plained of the tendency to run away shown by the Pequot 
slaves in the colonies. 1 The Indians enslaved after King 
Philip's War likewise escaped. Mayhew tells of runaway 
Indian slaves in Massachusetts in 1690. 2 In this same year 
one Isaac Morrill of New Jersey was arrested at Newbury, 
Massachusetts, for enticing Indian and negro slaves to run 
away. 8 

The Boston News Letter came into existence, 1704, 4 at 
about the time when Indian slaves began to be brought into 
the northern colonies from the Spanish islands and from 
the Carolinas. Rarely was there an issue of that or the 
other Massachusetts newspapers from that time down to 
the Revolutionary period which did not contain an adver- 
tisement for a runaway Indian slave. Sometimes the same 
advertisement was repeated in two or three successive 
issues, 5 and was often inserted in more than one news- 
paper. For the capture and return of the fugitives, rewards 
were offered, sometimes indefinite in nature as " suitable 
rewards ", 6 sometimes of stated amounts as £3/ forty 

1 Mason, A Brief History of the Pequot War, etc., in Orr. op. cit., 
P. 39- 
1 Mayhew, op. cit., p. 26. 

3 Coffin, A Sketch of the History of Newbury, etc., p. 153. 
* This was the first newspaper in the colonies. 
6 Boston News Letter, August 6; August 13; August 20, 171 1. 
8 Ibid., August 6, 1711. 
' Ibid., April 7, 1718; Ma)' 23, 1745; July 4, 1751; Boston Gazette and 



471 ] PROPERTY RELATIONS 219 

shillings, 1 twenty shillings, 2 £6, 3 f20, 4 £5,"' £7* £15/ 
four pistoles, 8 fifty shillings. 9 These advertisements relate 
for the most part to fugitive men and boy Indian slaves, but 
advertisements relating to runaway women Indian slaves 
are not lacking. 10 The escapes appear for the most part, 
though not always, to have been made singly. One adver- 
tisement shows two Indian men, two Indian women and 
an Indian boy belonging to different persons to have es- 
caped together. 11 Captains of vessels were often cautioned 
in the advertisements against carrying away such fugitive 
slaves, and any person harboring them or aiding them to 
escape was threatened with full penalty of the law. 

Weekly Journal, November 1, 1743; New York Gazette, July 23; 
August 6; August 20, 1733; February 13, 1739; Boston News Letter, 
October 30, 1760; November 6, 1760; November 28, 1760. 

' Boston News Letter, March 2, 1732; October 4, 1739; June 28, 
\J$o;New England Weekly Journal, October 16, 1727; New England 
Courant, August 19, 1723; Pennsylvania Mercury, August 28, 1729; 
Pennsylvania Journal, June 18, 1767; New York Gazette, June 24: 
July 8; July 15; July 29; August 12; August 26, 1734; New York 
Weekly Mercury, October 27, 1740; November 3; November 10, 1740; 
May 30; June 13, 1757- 

* Boston News Letter, October 7, 1742; August 23, 1744; New York 
Mercury, June 12, June 19, June 26, July 3, 1758. 

3 Boston News Letter, November 10, 1748; Boston Post Boy, July 
25, 1743- 

4 Boston Post Boy, July 6, 1752; July 18, 1753; Boston Gazette. 
August 1, 1749. 

6 Boston Post Boy, May 2, 1743; July 2, 1750; August 6, 1750; New 
England Courant, June 17, 1723; Boston Weekly Merrury, October 2, 
1735; New York Weekly Mercury, August 16, 1756. 

6 Boston Post Boy, February 11, 1745; April 15, 1751. 

' Boston Post Boy, December 5, 1748. 

8 Pennsylvania Gazette, October 5, 1738. 

9 Pennsylvania Mercury, July 30, 1730. 

10 Boston News Letter, August 6; August 13; August 20, 171 1; 
American Weekly Mercury, May 24, 1726; New York Weekly Mercury. 
June 12; June 19; June 26; July 3, 1758. Boston Gazette, April 7, 1718. 

11 Boston News Letter, September 10, 171 1. 



220 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [472 

All the colonies enacted fugitive slave laws. Some of 
these laws were applied to slaves in general, some to ne- 
groes and " other slaves," still others to negro, mulatto and 
Indian slaves. The colonies where slavery was of greatest 
extent had the most extensive and elaborate laws on the 
subject, and those colonies where Indian slavery existed to 
any considerable extent included the term " Indian slaves " 
in their laws. Pennsylvania made but little provision re- 
garding runaway slaves. Maryland concerned itself more 
largely with servants. 

Some of these laws did not define the term " runaway 
slave ". Others in an attempt to avoid confusion gave clear 
explanations of the term. Such an act was passed by Con- 
necticut in 1690, specifying that any Indian, mulatto or 
negro servants and slaves wandering outside the place to 
which they belonged without a ticket of leave or pass in 
writing from some assistant or justice of the peace or from 
their owner, were to be considered runaways and treated 
as such. 1 New Jersey, in 1713, considered as runaways 
any negro, mulatto or Indian slave who was five miles 
from his master's habitation without written leave of ab- 
sence from his owner, and any such slave found in New Jer- 
sey but belonging to another province was declared a run- 
away. 2 South Carolina, by the act of 1690, considered as a 
runaway any negro or Indian slave absent from his master's 
plantation (no distance specified), without a written ticket 
of leave unless in company with a white man. 3 

To discourage aid and assistance being given fugitive 
slaves, the colonies specified by legislative acts the punish- 
ment to follow such offense. On June 14, 1705, Lord Corn- 

1 Connecticut Colonial Records, iv, p. 40. 

1 Nevill, Acts of the General Assembly of the Province of New 
Jersey, pp. 18, 22. 
8 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vii, p. 343. 



473] PROPERTY RELATIONS 2 2I 

bury, in his opening speech to the New York assembly, ex- 
pressed his opinion regarding the necessity for passing an 
act to prevent negro, Indian and mulatto slaves running 
away from their masters. 1 An act of the common council 
of Albany, 1686, forbade all persons harboring negro 
or Indian slaves in their houses without the owners' con- 
sent. 2 Pennsylvania, 1726, decreed a fine of five shillings 
for the first hour and one shilling for every hour afterward 
that any person should harbor or entertain any runaway 
negro, Indian or mulatto slave. 3 Virginia, by the act of 
1705, specified a fine of £100 for any shipmaster transport- 
ing any negro, mulatto or Indian slave out of the colony 
without permission of the owner. 4 South Carolina, also, 
by an act of 1690. levied forty shillings fine on any one not 
attempting to apprehend a negro or Indian slave coming 
into his plantation without a ticket of leave from his master 
or not accompanied by a white man. 5 

Not infrequently the colonial authorities were called 
upon to furnish protection to the owners of Indian slaves 
against their seizure by the free Indians, or against fugitive 
Indian slaves being hidden and retained by the tribes. To 
effect the return of such slaves special inducements were 
offered by the colonial government from time to time. At 
the close of the Pequot War an agreement was made by 
the chief, Miantonomo, and the Massachusetts government, 
by which the former promised to seize such Pequot slaves 
as escaped, and return them to their owners. 8 On June 2, 

1 Messages from the Governors of New York State, i, p. 116. 

* Weise, The History of the City of Albany, etc., p. 209. 

s The Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania, iv, p. 62. 

4 Hening, op. cit., iii, p. 217. 

6 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vii, p. 343. 

8 Drake, The Book of the Indians, etc., ninth edition, pp. 60-70; 
Winthrop, Journal, i, p. 267; ii, p. 8, in Original Narratives of Early 
American History. 



222 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [474 

1641, the general court of Massachusetts made a similar 
agreement with Lieutenant Willard of Concord, Ensign 
Holman of Dorchester, and Sergeant Collacot of Dor- 
chester. As a partial return for the monopoly of the Indian 
trade granted them, these men agreed to demand, wherever 
they should find them, all fugitive Pequot slaves that be- 
longed to the English. 1 A similar request for protec- 
tion is found in New York, where two widows peti- 
tioned governor and council, May 16, 171 7, regarding two 
Indian slaves who were secreted by the Indians of Pekke- 
meck. 2 Events in North Carolina, following the Tusca- 
rora War, offer numerous illustrations of colonial action 
taken to secure the return of such fugitives. The Indian 
slaves in the colony, consisting largely of the captive Tus- 
carora, frequently escaped and took refuge with the free 
Indians of their tribe. The Indians neglected to return 
these runaways, and the council was compelled to call many 
times upon " King Blount " to compel his people to return 
the slaves according to his agreement with the Carolina 
government. Such action is recorded as late as 173 1. 3 

Sometimes this protection of slave owners in their prop- 
erty rights assumed intercolonial importance. Such a recog- 
nition of property rights occurred in the articles of feder- 
ation of the United Colonies of New England, 1643, * n the 
provision: "If any servant run away from his master into 
any of these confederated jurisdictions, ... in such case, 
upon certificate of one magistrate in the jurisdiction of 
which the said servant fled, or upon other due proof, the 

1 Lech ford, Note Book kept in Boston, Massachusetts Bay, from 
1638 to 164 1, p. 434. 

a O'Callaghan, Calendar of Historical Manuscripts, pt. ii, p. 433. 

8 North Carolina Colonial Records, ii, pp. 315, 534, 536, 570, 674; 
iii. p. 218; xi. pp. 10, 23. 



475] PROPERTY RELATIONS 2 2X 

said servant shall be delivered, either to his master or any- 
other that pursues and brings such certificate or proof 'V 

Since it was found that certain Indian villages harbored 
fugitive Indians, the Confederation, September 5, 1646, 
decided that such villages might be raided and the inhabi- 
tants carried off, women and children being spared as far 
as possible, and declared that " because it will be charge- 
able keeping Indians in prison and, if they should escape, 
they are liable to prove more insolent and dangerous after, 
it was thought fit that upon such seizure . . . the magis- 
trates of the jurisdiction deliver up the Indian seized to the 
party or parties indamaged, either to serve or to be shipped 
out and exchanged for negroes, as the cause will justly 
bear." 2 In the same year the commissioners of the United 
Colonies sent a letter to Governor Kieft of New Nether- 
land demanding the return of an Indian captive " fled from 
her master at Hartford " and " entertained in your house 
at Hartford and, though required by the magistrate, . . . 
under the hands of your agent there denied . . . and said 
to have been either married or abused by one of your men". 
" Such a servant," they declared, " is part of her master's 
estate and a more considerable part than a beast." Kieft 
refused to give up the Indian woman, and replied: "as 
concerns the barbarian handmaid ", it is " apprehended by 
some, that she is no slave, but a freewoman, because she 
was neither taken in war, nor bought with price, but was in 
former times placed with me by her parents for educa- 
tion ". 3 By the intercolonial treaty of September 19, 1650, 
the provision of the articles of confederation concerning 

1 Plymouth Colony Records, ix, pp. 6-7. This was the first fugitive 
slave law in America. 

a Hazard, Historical Collections, etc., ii, p. 63 ; Plymouth Colony 
Records, ix, p. 71. See full text of the resolution, p. 207. 

3 Plymouth Colony Records, ix. p. 64; Brodhead, History of the 
State of Nczi' York, rev ; sed edition, i, p. 429. 



224 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [476 

fugitive slaves was extended so as to include the intercourse 
of the New Englanders and the Dutch. 1 Another fugitive 
slave law similar to that of 1643 was contained in the 
articles of confederation of the United Colonies in 1672. 2 

Similar events involved New York and Pennsylvania, 
In 1723, some Seneca Indians trading in South Carolina 
carried away an Indian slave boy belonging to an English- 
man there. The governor of New York charged the Sen- 
eca with the act and demanded that the slave boy be re- 
turned. The Seneca acknowledged that they were among 
the party who took the slave boy, said that he had been 
given to some Susquehanna Indians, and requested the gov- 
ornor to ask for him there. 3 An undated letter of William 
Penn to the Susquehanna Indians regarding some Indian 
slaves taken from the people of New York by them, refers 
to a similar incident. In it Penn mentions the people of 
New York having twice appealed to him regarding an In- 
dian woman and boy, both slaves, bought in New York 
from the governor of Carolina, which the Susquehanna In- 
dians had taken away. Penn urged the Susquehanna to 
deliver the slaves to his messenger that they might be put 
on board a vessel and returned to New York. 4 

In July, 1682, Plymouth provided that if any Indian who 
was a servant of the English should run away, " such In- 
dians where such a runaway Indian is come, shall forth- 
with give notice of the runaway to the Indian constable, 
who shall immediately apprehend such Indian servant and 
carry him or her before the overseer or next magistrate." 5 

1 Plymouth Colony Records, ix, p. 64. 

3 Ibid., x, p. 348 ; Shurtlefr, op. cit., iv, pt. ii, p. 473 ; Hurd, The Law 
of Freedom and Bondage in the United States, i, p. 269. 

• New York Co'onial Documents, v, pp. 793, 796. 

* Pennsylvania Archives, series 1, xii, p. 280. 

5 Baylies, An Historical Memoir of the Colony of New Plymouth, 
ii, pt. iv, p. 39. 



477] PROPERTY RELATIONS 225 

At a meeting, January 9, 1713, the council of North 
Carolina considered the matter of two Indian slaves sent 
to the colony from Virginia, and found that they belonged 
to two residents of South Carolina from whom, presum- 
ably, they had been stolen. The council, acknowledging the 
owners' claim to the right of possession, ordered that the 
Indians be delivered to Colonel James Moore " for the use 
and on behalf of the owners." 1 

A case in Massachusetts shows a colonial government re- 
munerating a citizen for an Indian slave taken from him by 
governmental authority. During King Philip's War, one 
George Speere bought an Indian from Captain Hull who 
had been empowered by the council to make sale of Indian 
captives at that time. The council, by warrant of the con- 
stable of Braintree, took away the Indian boy for some 
reason. Speere complained of the loss of his property, 
after, as he said, he had brought it to a " very tractable and 
profitable state ", and petitioned to have his Indian boy 
returned to him, or to be given his value. The council 
accordingly granted him the value. 2 

As in the case of other property, the colonial courts were 
sometimes called upon to settle disputes regarding the 
ownership of Indian slaves. Two events in Massachusetts 
and North Carolina are cases in point. In 1684, the Massa- 
chusetts Court of Assistants was called upon to settle a 
case of disputed ownership which had been appealed from 
the County Court of Salem. 3 On November 24, 1777, 
complaint was made to the North Carolina House of Com- 
mons by a slave owner who had been dispossessed of his 
Indian slave by two other Carolinians. The House ap- 

1 North Carolina Colonial Records, ii. p. 2. 
* Massachusetts Manuscript Records, vol. xxx. 

' Records of the Court of Assistants of the Colony of Massachusetts 
Bay, i, p. 259. 



22 6 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [478 

pointed a committee to investigate the matter. 1 Similar 
instances in other years are recorded in connection with 
North Carolina. 2 

With the growth of the idea of property incident to the 
slavery status, the " early transition of the slave from per- 
sonal estate to a chattel real, or real estate with accompany- 
ing incidents, was easy and natural." 3 Under the caption 
of " property " both negro and Indian slaves were subject 
to taxation like other property, either for colonial revenue 
in general or to meet local expenses. Moreover in cer- 
tain colonies both Indian and negro slaves were assigned 
the double character of persons subject to a poll tax and 
property subject to a property tax. 

South Carolina, in the act of 1690, provided "that all 
slaves ... as to the payment of debts shall be deemed and 
taken as all other goods and chattels, . . . and all negroes 
and slaves shall be accounted as freehold in all other cases 
whatsoever and descend accordingly ".* Middleton, presi- 
dent of the council, consequently declared, in 1725, that 
negroes were real property, such as houses and lands, in 
Carolina. 5 Yet they were always returned as personal prop- 
erty in the inventories of intestates. 6 This condition con- 
tinued until 1740, when it was declared that negroes and 
Indian slaves should be reputed and adjudged in law to be 
chattels personal in the hands of their owners and pos- 
sessors and their executors, administrators and assigns. 7 

1 North Carolina Colonial Records, xii, pp. 138-139, 302. 

* Ibid., ii, pp 95, 97, 113-114. 

8 Pallagh, A History of Slavery in Virginia, pp. 39-40. 

4 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vii, pp. 343-344. 

5 Hewat, op. cit., i, p. 314. 

6 McCrady, Slavery in the Province of South Caro'ina, in Annual 
Report of the American Historical Association, 1895, p. 645. 

' The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vii, p. 397. 



479] PROPERTY RELATIONS 2 2J 

Various tax acts were passed from time to time for special 
reasons, and in some of these Indian slaves, along with 
negroes, were a part of the basis of taxation, being rated 
as property without specification as to real or personal, 
along with goods, lands, cattle and white servants. Such 
an act was passed in 1703. 1 The act contained the general 
term " slaves ", which, of course, included Indian slaves by 
implication. 

A tax on polls was generally selected by the colonies as 
the chief source of revenue. In accordance with this idea 
of taxation North Carolina during the eighteenth century 
regarded Indian slaves as taxables. In the earliest legisla- 
tive action of the colony taxables were declared to be every 
white male aged sixteen years, and every slave, negro, mu- 
latto, or Indian, male or female, aged twelve years. 2 By 
the act of 1750, furthermore, a taxable was every white 
man of sixteen years of age, every negro, mulatto or mus- 
tee, and every other person of mixed blood to the fourth 
generation, twelve years of age. 3 

In Virginia, especially, there was much confusion re- 
garding the position of the slave as a person and as prop- 
erty. Until after the Revolution, taxes were chiefly im- 
posed according to the number of tithables in each county, 
i. e., persons assessed for a poll tax. 4 The act of 1649 de- 
clared all imported male servants to be tithables. Indians 

1 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, i\ p. 207. The act of 
1704. seeking to correct any misinterpretation of a former tax act, 
specifies whi e servants among the property serving as a basis for 
taxation, but does not mention slaves. Ibid , ii, p. 264. 

* Will'amson, The History of North Carolina, i, p. 122 

8 Raper, North Carolina, A Study in English Colonial Government, 
P- 147- 

* William and Mary College Quarterly, viii, p. 160. At first on'y 
free white persons were tithables. The law of 1645 provided for a 
tax on tithables and tithable persons. Hening, op. cit., i, p. 306. 



228 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [480 

imported into the colony as servants were included by im- 
plication. Since in the preceding year an act had declared 
that a specified poll tax should be levied only on the tith- 
ables, Indian servants, as they must be called before 1670, 1 
were attributed a legal personality or a membership in the 
social status inconsistent with the condition of a chattel 
or property. By the act of March, 1658, Indian servants, 
male and female, sixteen years of age, were included among 
the tithables by specific mention. 2 The same provision was 
repeated in the acts of March, 1662. 3 Some doubt having 
arisen as to whether this law applied to female Indian ser- 
vants as well as to male, acts were passed in December, 
1662, 4 September, 1672 5 and November, 1682, 6 to settle 
the matter. The former act related to women servants 
commonly employed in " working in the crop " ; the latter 
declared that " all Indian women are and shall be tithables, 
and ought to pay levies in like manner as negro women 
brought into this country do, and ought to pay." 

In 1682, the gradual process of change from the status of 
Indian servitude to that of Indian slavery was completed. 
The Virginia act of 1670 had decreed a condition of slav- 
ery for all Indians imported into the colony by sea. 7 But 
the great body of subject Indians were natives of the coun- 
try. Such Indians remained servants up to 1676, when at 
the beginning of the Indian war, one of Bacon's laws made 
all Indian captives slaves. 8 In 1682, slavery was extended to 

1 Ballagh, op. cit., p. 35. 

1 Hening, op. cit., ii, p. 454. 

' Ibid., ii, p. 84. * Ibid., ii, p. 170. 

6 Ibid., p. 296. ,; Ibid., ii, p. 492. 

7 Ibid., ii, p. 283. The act doubtless referred to Indians imported 
from the West Indies or Spanish South America. 

8 Ibid., ii, p. 346. 



4 8i] PROPERTY RELATIONS 229 

captives sold by tributary Indians " in the hope of miti- 
gating their condition as it was certain that they would be 
held in slavery by their captors." 1 These acts did not 
make provision for changing the condition of Indian ser- 
vants that existed in the colony before 1670. Such a change 
had come about through a gradual and natural process with 
the passage of the laws mentioned and the changed attitude 
toward the subject Indians, so that in fact all subject In- 
dians were not considered slaves. Hence, in 1682, all In- 
dian slaves were considered in law as persons inasmuch as 
they were tithables. By 1705 it was found necessary, for 
legal purposes, to " advance the property notion of the slave 
from personalty to realty," 2 though certain incidents of 
personalty were still retained. The statute of that year 
by which the change was effected provided that in future 
" all negro, mulatto or Indian slaves in all courts of juris- 
diction and other places within this dominion shall be held, 
taken and adjudged to be real estate and not chattels ". 3 
As a part of real estate property slaves were subject to 
taxation. An act of 1748 again made slaves personal es- 
tate, but was repealed by the king, October 31, 175 1. 4 By 
the acts of 1779 and 1781 slaves were still liable to a poll 
tax of £5 and 10 s. respectively, to be paid by the owner. 5 
So it may be seen that from 1649 until after the Revolu- 

1 Hening, op. cit., i, pp. 396, 471. 

1 Ballagh, op. cit., p. 63. 

8 Hening, op. cit , iii, p. 133. 

* Ibid., v, p. 432 ; Ballagh, op. cit., p. 67. 

6 Ballagh, op. cit., p. 72. A curious case shows the owner of an 
Indian slave in Bristol Parish, Virg'nia, petitioning the vestry of the 
parish, 1730, 10 grant that such Ind'an slave might be exempted from 
the parish levy as he was sick and unable to work The petition was 
granted. Vestry Book and Register of Bristol Parish, Virginia, 
1 720- 1 789, p. 49. 



230 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [482 

tion Indian servants and slaves either as persons or as prop- 
erty were used as a basis for taxation in Virginia. 

Masachusetts was the only other colony that assigned the 
double status of personalty and real property to its slaves. 
There, as in Virginia, the status varied from time to time. 
Under the earliest laws of taxation in that colony, slaves 
must have been rated, if taxed at all, as polls, the owners 
paying for them as for other servants and children, " such 
as take not wages". This continued until 1692, when "every 
male slave of sixteen years old and upwards " was rated at 
" £20 estate "- 1 But in 1694 " all negroes, mulattoes and 
Indian servants, as well male as female, of sixteen years old 
and upwards ", were assigned a status of personalty by 
being rated at I2d. per poll, the same as other polls. 2 In 
1695, "all negro, mulatto and Indian servants" again be- 
came a property basis for taxation by an act valuing negro, 
mulatto and Indian male servants fourteen years of age 
and upward at £20 estate, and similar female servants at 
£14 estate, unless disabled by infirmity. 3 They were subse- 
quently, in 1696, 4 rated as " other personal estate ", which 
rating was continued in 1697 5 and 1698, 6 in the latter year 
"according to the found judgment and discretion of the 
assessors, not excluding faculties ", i. e., trades or profes- 
sions. This rating for faculties was common throughout 
the early tax laws of Massachusetts, and continued into the 
nineteenth century. It was applied to white men from the 
beginning, 7 but the law of 1698 appears to have been the 

1 Acts and Resolves, i, p. 92. 
7 Ibid., i, p. 167. 

3 Ibid., i, p. 214. * Ibid., i, pp. 240, 258. 

* Ibid., i, pp. 278, 302. * Ibid., i, pp. 337, 359- 

7 Moore, Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts, p. 62; 
Douglas, The Financial History of Massachusetts, etc., p. 31. 



483] PROPERTY RELATIONS 23 1 

first and only one in which the feature was applied to the 
negroes, mulattoes and Indians who were slaves. There 
was little variation in the tax laws during the remainder 
of the colonial period. All Indian, negro and mulatto ser- 
vants continued to be rated as personal property in the 
usual yearly levies. 1 Occasionally, as in the earlier period, 
some of those who were servants for a term of years, but 
not for life, were numbered and rated as polls. 2 Other ex- 
emptions were made in the case of slaves " disabled by in- 
firmity ". 3 

In 17 16, an attempt was made to modify this feature of 
property status for slaves in Massachusetts. In that year 
Judge Sewall was a member of the council, and on June 
22, 171 6, proposed to that body that negro and Indian 
slaves be no longer rated with horses and hogs as personal 
property. The council agreed to the proposition, and its 
decision was sent down to the deputies for concurrence. 
But the members of the house refused assent on the ground 
that they were just going to make a new valuation. In the 
preceding valuations of the property of their constituents. 
Indian, negro and mulatto slaves were regarded as prop- 
erty, and the owners of it should be taxed accordingly. 4 

In the remaining colonies that taxed Indian and other 
slaves, such taxation was levied on the basis of property, 
sometimes personal and sometimes real. The annual tax 
in South Carolina included slaves among the taxable prop- 

1 The laws are given in Acts and Resolves, i, ii, iii, and iv. 

1 See laws of 1707 and 1718. 

1 See laws of 1695 and 1707- 

4 Moore, op. cit., p. 64; Sewall's Diary, in Massachusetts Historical 
Society Collections, series 5, vii, p 87; Coffin, A Sketch of the History 
of Newbury, etc., p. 188. 



232 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [484 

erty. 1 A law of 1719 provided that since Indian slaves 
were commonly reputed to be of less value than negro 
slaves, all persons possessing them should pay for each In- 
dian in proportion to half the value of whatever might be 
rated and imposed for each negro, and no more. 2 

In New York Indian and negro slaves entered but little 
into the system of taxation, since slaves were not numer- 
ous in the colony and therefore would furnish but a poor 
basis for taxation, and the finances of the colony were pro- 
vided for more largely by income taxes than otherwise. In 
1709, however, along with a tax on chimneys, fireplaces and 
stoves, a tax of two shillings was levied on every negro or 
Indian slave from fifteen to sixty years of age, with direc- 
tions for collecting the same, and provision for fine and 
punishment if such tax were not paid. 3 Again, in 1734., 
when arrangement was made to raise a certain amount 
yearly for a period of ten years, one source of revenue was 
to be a tax of " two pennyweight and twelve grains of Sivil 
Pillar or Mexican Plate, or the sum of one shilling in Bills 
of Credit made current in this colony " on every Indian or 
mulatto slave who was above the age of fourteen and under 
the age of fifty years. 4 

An instance of Indian slaves serving as a basis of taxa- 
tion in a local levy is found in the history of Rye, New 
York. At a town meeting in 1703, to raise the assessment 
for the ensuing year, it was decided that a portion of the 

1 Laws of 1758 and 1777 in The Statutes at Large of South Caro- 
lina, iv, pp. 116, 365. These laws serve as examples of the various tax 
acts. 

* The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, iii, p. 77- 

* New York Colonial Laws, edition of 1894. i, pp. 682-683. 

* Ibid., ii, pp. 877, 881. 



485] PROPERTY RELATIONS 233 

sum should be obtained by the tax on £12 valuation of all 
slaves of sixteen years old and upward. 1 Though Indian 
slaves were not mentioned in the town action, they were 
doubtless included by implication, for in 171 1 the people 
of the town were called upon to pay taxes under " an act 
for raising one shilling on every Indian and negro slave." 2 

In most of the colonies import duties, and in at least 
one instance export duties, were levied on Indian slaves 
brought into or taken from the colonies. Such duties were 
generally levied for self-defense, though occasionally for 
revenue. During the colonial period England's interest in 
the African slave trade led her to take effective measures 
to dispose of as many negroes as possible in the American 
colonies. In course of time the colonists awoke to the 
danger which might result from an excess of an ignorant 
servile class which in some sections outnumbered the white 
population. Frequent attempts were made in various colo- 
nies to check the importation of negroes by levying import 
duties. At times Indians as well as negroes were included 
in these laws. In their enactment it seems probable that 
the colonial legislatures had a double purpose : to shut out 
undesirables of both races, and to prevent the importation 
of negroes in the guise of Indians. Real danger threatened 
the colonies from an excessive importation of Indians as 
slaves, and an attempt was therefore made to check it. In 
those colonies where import duties furnished a substantial 
part of the colonial revenue, such duties were levied on In- 
dian slaves as well as on other property. 

As early as 1698 the importation of negroes into South 
Carolina had reached such proportions that the safety of 

1 Baird, History of Rye, p. 202. 
■ Ibid., p. 182. 



234 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [486 

the province was considered endangered. 1 Attempts to 
check such importation were accordingly made throughout 
the colonial period by levying import duties. As the 
number of Indian slaves in the colony increased, they too 
were included as a basis for duties. By the act of 1721, the 
importation of negro, mulatto, mustee and Indian slaves 
(Spanish Indians excepted) by their owners was permitted 
without duty, provided such owner intended to settle in the 
colony and employ the slaves in his own service. He was 
required, however, to take an oath that in case he sold any 
of these slaves within twelve months after bringing them 
into the colony, he would pay certain required duties. 2 

The Spanish Indians were considered especially unde- 
sirable. Accordingly, an act of 1722 imposed upon all such 
Spanish Indians, negroes, mulattoes and mustees imported, 
a duty of £50 current money of the province. 3 The duty on 
Indian slaves was levied without regard to age, while that 
on negro slaves was graduated according to age. A report 
to the Board of Trade, February 2, 1736, gave the duty on 
negro slaves imported from Africa above ten years old as 
£10; under ten years old, £5; and on all Indians imported, 
£50 each. 4 The following was the tariff schedule on negroes 
and Indians in force in 1775. 5 "Indians imported as slaves, 
each £50. Negroes or slaves, four feet two inches or more 
in height, each £10. Negroes, under four feet two, and 
above three feet two inches, each £5. Negroes, under four 
feet two, and above three feet two inches, sucking children 

1 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, ii, p. 153. 

2 Ibid., iii, p. 196. 
s Ibid., iii, p. 196. 

* South Carolina Public Records, xviii, 1736-1737; B. P. R. O., S. C, 
B. T., viii, p. 37. 

5 The Centennial of Incorporation of Charleston, South Carolina, 
p. 210. 



487] PROPERTY RELATIONS 235 

excepted, each 2£ 10s. Negroes or slaves from any of his 
Majesty's plantations in America, where such slaves have 
been for six months or more, unless imported by the owners 
with design to be employed on their own account, besides 
the above £10, £5, and £2 10s., each slave, £50." 

The earliest act passed in Virginia to check the importa- 
tion of negroes, that of 1699, imposed a duty of fifteen 
shillings per poll upon every servant not born in England or 
Wales, and twenty shillings for every negro or other slave 
imported into the colony. This duty was continued or in- 
creased by a number of temporary acts between 1669 and 
1776. 1 The acts were worded " all slaves " or " negroes 
and other slaves ". Thus import duties were levied upon 
Indian as well as negro slaves. A statute of 1710 advanced 
the duty on negroes to £5 per head, and placed a duty of 
twenty shillings on Indians imported by land. 2 The differ- 
ence in the amount of the duties is indicative of the relative 
amount of danger attached by the colonists to the presence 
of the two classes of slaves in the colony. 

At the time of the Tuscarora War, the northern colonies 
realized fully the possible results of the importation of the 
captives sold in their communities. Some of them in conse- 
quence passed laws to ward off danger from this source. In 
1 71 2, Rhode Island passed an act levying a duty of forty 
shillings on every Indian brought into the colony. The act 
was enforced by severe penalties, and every ship owner was 
required to give bond to the amount of £50 for observing 

1 By the terms of the act this duty was to continue three years. 
Hening, op. cit., iii, p. 193; Virginia Histor'cal Society Collections, new 
series, vi, p. 10. All enactments which increased the duties were 
ve'oed by the crown. 

1 Hening, op cit., iii, p. 482; Letters of Governor Spotswood, in 
Virginia Historical Society Collections, new series, i, p. S^'» Ballagh, 
op. cit., p. 14. 



236 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [488 

it. 1 New Hampshire, in 1714, levied the heavy duty of £10 
on the importation of any Indian into the province. 1 

Pennsylvania, also, June 7, 1712, voted to levy a duty of 
£20 on all negroes and Indians brought into the colony by 
land or water, certain negroes from the West Indies ex- 
cepted. Exception was also made in the case of negro and 
Indian slaves brought in by their owners with the intention 
of taking them out again within the space of twenty days, 
and in the case of Indians or negroes belonging to 
persons in the province and sent out of it on their masters' 
business with intent to return again.' 

A duty of £10 was levied by New Jersey in 171 3.* 
In January, 1739, the New Jersey assembly presented 

1 Records of the Co'ony of Rhode Is'and and Providence Plantat'ons, 
iv, p 134. Exceptions were sometimes made to this law. During 
the Yamasee War in South Carolina, many of the planters left the 
colony. Several ladies came to Rhode Island bringing with ihem 
their Indian slaves. On their petition, the assembly voted, June 13, 
1715, to relieve them from the import duties on their slaves. Arnold, 
op. cit., ii, p. 55 ; Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Pro- 
vidence Plantations, iv, p. 186. A similar instance occurred in August 
of the same year. Arnold, op. cit., ii, p. 57; Records of the Colony 
of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, iv, p. 197. 

* Laws of New Hampshire, edition of 1711, p. 53. Since New Hamp- 
shire did not afford as ready a market for the sale of the southern 
Indians, because of its small population, the duty was doubtless more 
nearly prohibitive than in ihe case of Rhode Island. 

* Pennsylvania Statutes at Large, ii, pp. 433, et seq.; Pennsylvania 
Historical Society Memoirs, i, p. 389; Votes and Proceedings of the 
House of Representatives of the Province of Pennsylvania, ii, pp. 
112, 114; Pennsy'vania Colonial Records, ii, pp. 550, 553. A special 
officer was appointed to have charge of this matter of imported In- 
dians and negroes, and given special d rec ions regarding the duties 
of his office The act was repealed by the crown, February 20, 1714. 
Pcnnsy vania Colonial Records, ii, p. 546. 

* Allinson, Acts of the General Assembly of the Province of New 
Jersey, p. 31. By the terms of the act, the duty was to cont.nue seven 
years, beginning June 1, 1714. 






489] PROPERTY RELATIONS 237 

to the council for concurrence a bill entitled " An act for 
laying a duty on negro, Indian and mulatto slaves imported 
into this province." x The bill did not appeal favorably to 
the council and was rejected. 2 The reason for rejection 
was the need of laborers in the province, owing to the de- 
crease in the number of white indentured servants, and the 
check that this bill would give to the importation of 
negroes. 3 But in November, 1769, a bill setting forth as 
its purpose the encouragement of the coming of white ser- 
vants by limiting the importation of blacks, was passed. 
The duty in this case was higher than that proposed in 
1739, being £15 on all slaves imported, negro, Indian or 
mulatto. Punishment for refusal or neglect to pay was 
specified. Purchase of a slave " made upon the Water or 
Waters along the Seacoast " of the province, or on those 
between the province and the provinces of New York, 
Pennsylvania and the Lower Counties of the Delaware, 
was, by section VII of the act, declared a " purchase within 
the county " of New Jersey " opposite to such Water ". and 
so was exempt from duty. 4 

The second cause for levying duties on Indians and other 
slaves was to obtain revenue. Virginia in its legislation on 
the subject had pretended at least that such was its pur- 
pose, and to carry out the pretense had devoted the amounts 
thus obtained to meeting colonial expenses. 5 Other colo- 
nies sought directly for revenue. 6 New York was a strik- 

1 New Jersey Archives, first series, xv, p. 30. 

1 Ibid., first series, xv, p. 351. s Ibid., first series, xv, pp. 384, 385. 

* Allinson, Acts of the General Assembly of the Province of New 
Jersey, p. 315. 

* Ballagh, op. cit., p. 14. 

* Pennsylvania. January 12, 1706, passed an act for the purpose of 
meeting government expenses. Negroes were enumerated among the 
commodities on which duties were laid. No mention was made of 
Indians. Pennsylvania Statutes at I^arge, ii, p. 280. 



238 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [490 

ing example of such colonies. Import duties formed a 
chief source of the colonial revenue, and slaves were enu- 
merated among the other commodities. The act of May 1, 
1702, the first specifically to mention Indian slaves, placed 
a duty of fifteen shillings on every negro or Indian slave 
imported into the colony directly from their place of resi- 
dence, and thirty shillings upon every negro or Indian 
slave not so imported. 1 The act which was to continue but 
two years was found to be "of great use in this colony " 
and was accordingly repeated on August 4, 1705, to con- 
tinue seven years. 2 On June 24, 1719, it was again re- 
peated to remain in effect from July 1, 1720, to July 1, 
1726. 3 Still other acts imposing similar duties were passed 
as follows: in 1709, levying a duty of £3 on every negro 
imported into the colony not directly from Africa and £3 
on every other slave or slaves not directly imported into 
the colony from Africa, the act to continue till May 1, 
171 1 ; 4 on June 21, 1714, levying " a duty of ten ounces of 
good plate " to be paid by the master or commander of 
any vessel, or any other person importing slaves ; 5 and on 
September 1, 1716, levying a duty of "ten ounces 
of good plate " on each negro, Indian or mulatto 
slave imported into the colony from Africa in any ves- 
sel not wholly owned by the people of the colony, and 
a like duty on every negro, Indian or mulatto slave im- 
ported into the colony from any part of the West Indies 
or any of the neighboring colonies, negroes or other slaves 
going to and fro on their owners' business excepted. 6 On 

1 New York Colonial Laws, edition of 1894, i, pp 484, 487. 
a Ibid., i, p. 588. s Ibid., i, p. 1013. 

4 Ibid., i, p. 677. On October 11. 1709, the act was amended with 
regard to its enforcement. Ibid., i, p. 736. 

8 Ibid , i, p. 803. 
6 Ibid., i, p. 899. 



49 j] PROPERTY RELATIONS 239 

October 16, 1718, furthermore, it was decreed that no 
greater duty was to be demanded on any slave brought into 
the colony directly from Africa by a ship of Great Britain, 
than was to be demanded from vessels wholly owned by 
inhabitants of the colony. 1 In June 17, 1726, on every 
Indian, negro or mulatto slave (male or female) of four 
years of age or upwards imported by land or water from 
all places other than Africa, a duty of £4 was laid. 2 On 
October 14, 1732, a similar duty, regardless of the place 
from which the slave was imported, was laid. 8 On No- 
vember 28, 1734, on every negro, Indian or mulatto slave 
above the age of fourteen and under the age of fifty, dur- 
ing the period of ten years, the duty was fixed at " the 
quantity of two pennyweight and twelve grains of Sivil 
pillar or Mexican plate, or the sum of one shilling in Bills 
of Credit made current in this colony." 4 On December 
16, 1737, finally, every negro, Indian or mulatto slave above 
the age of four years imported directly from Africa was 
made dutiable at the rate of five ounces of " Sivil pillar or 
Mexican plate " or forty shillings in bills of credit current 
in the colony ; and for every such slave imported from all 
other places by land or water, the sum of £4 in like money 
was exacted. 5 All slaves belonging to the crew of 
any vessel, and slaves coming into the colony from the 
neighboring colonies upon the service of their masters, and 
all slaves under fourteen years of age were to be ad- 
mitted free of duty. 6 Any person coming into the col- 
ony alone, or with his or her family to reside or visit in 
the colony, was allowed to bring slaves for personal ser- 

1 New York Colonial Laws, edition of 1894, i, p. 1012. 

* Ib'd.. ii, pp. 255, 310. *lbid., ii, p. 772. 

* Ibid., ii, p. 877. & Ibid., ii. p. 1048. 
8 Ibid., ii, p. 1049. 



240 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [492 

vice, provided the owner gave sufficient security to the 
treasurer within four days after the importation thereof, 
that, whenever such slaves should be sold, the duty imposed 
by the act should be paid within two days after such sale. 
Upon failure to pay such duty, the owner or disposer 
of such slaves was to forfeit the sum of £10, the slave 
or slaves, nevertheless, to be subject to the duty in ques- 
tion. The duties provided for by the act were to remain 
in existence for the period of one year. 1 At the expiration 
of the act it was continued for another year, with certain 
amendments which did not relate to slaves. 2 At the ex- 
piration of the specified period it was again continued for 
another year or until the close of 1740, 3 when it was again 
continued until December, 1741. 4 Such acts were then 
passed by New York each year until the opening of the 
troubles of the Revolutionary period. 6 

The number of Indians exported as slaves from South 
Carolina was larger than that from any other colony. As 
a means of obtaining revenue, as well as of attempting to 
check the business of the Indian traders, the colony passed 
an act in 1703 which placed a duty upon Indian slaves ex- 

1 New York Colonial Laws, edition of 1894, ii, p. 1049. The act 
also provided technical arrangements for set ling disputes regarding 
the ages of the slaves, the exemption from duty if the slave should 
die within a period of thirty days after arrival, the receipt issued for 
such duly by the treasurer, and precautions to prevent smuggling. 

* Ibid., iii, p. 2. 

3 Ibid., iii, p. 32. 

4 Ibid., iii, p. 88. 

8 Ibid., iii and iv. New York, like Virgmia, sought to avoid the veto 
of the home government to these laws by giving them a short term 
of existence, usually one year. And generally New York was more 
successful than Virginia. But the home government was not always 
satisfied by such provisions as is witnessed by the Privy Council's 
rejection of the act of 1735 levying a duty on negro and Indian slaves. 
New York Colonial Documents, vi, p. 33. 



493] PROPERTY RELATIONS 24 1 

ported from the colony. 1 The traders were carefully in- 
structed not to attempt any such exportations without first 
paying at Charleston the required duties, twenty shillings 
for each Indian exported. 2 

1 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, ii, p. 201. Duties were 
also levied by the act upon skins and furs. 

7 Ind'an Book, 1710-1718, in Columbia, South Carolina, Historical 
Commission Department, i, p. 19. 



CHAPTER X 

Methods of Employment 

Since the English never made long journeys of explor- 
ation into the interior, as the Spanish and French did in 
the earliest days of their occupation of America, their use 
of Indian slaves as hunters, fishermen and guides was rela- 
tively limited. With the forming of settlements and the 
growth of institutional life this use became more promi- 
nent. In Carolina it appears that the Indian slaves were 
occupied chiefly in hunting and fishing for their masters, 
whereas the greater part of the harder field work was left 
to the negroes. 1 The Indians were expert hunters, and as 
the woods abounded in game, such a hunter " was of great 
service in a plantation, and could furnish a family with 
more provisions than they could consume ". 2 In New Eng- 
land, also, there is occasional mention of Indian slaves used 
as guides. 3 It seems probable, however, that this service 
was more largely confined to the south where Indian slaves 
were less expensive and more easily procured than in the 
north, for such an occupation offered more opportunity for 
escape than any other. 

In New England the Indians retained in the colonies as 

1 Hawks, History of North Carolina, etc., second edition, ii, p. 229; 
Brickell, The Natural History of North Carolina, etc , p. 42 

2 Hewat, op. cit., i, p. 128; Schaper, Sectionalism in South Carolina, 
p. 283. 

3 Cotton Mather kept an Indian prisoner to serve as a guide. Mag- 
nalia, edition of 1820, ii, p. 507. 

242 [494 



4 9 c;] METHODS OF EMPLOYMENT 243 

slaves after the Pequot and King Philip Wars were chiefly 
women and children. In the early history of Massachusetts 
some of the leading families in wealth and importance un- 
able to obtain other help, employed Indians as cooks. 1 After 
the wars in question the Indian slaves were put to the same 
use by both Massachusetts and Connecticut. 2 

The colonial newspapers of New England attribute much 
domestic ability to the Indian slaves advertised in their col- 
umns : " An Indian woman who is a very good cook, and 
can wash, iron and sew " ; 3 "A likely Indian wench about 
nineteen years of age fit for any business in town or coun- 
try " ; * " An Indian woman ... fit for all manner of 
household work either in town or country, can sew, wash, 
brew, bake, spin and milk cows " ; 5 "A lusty Carolina In- 
dian woman fit for any daily service ". 6 The newspapers 
of the middle colonies furnish a similar record: " A young 
Spanish Indian woman, fit for all manner of household 
business " ; 7 " An Indian woman and her child . . . she 
washes, irons and starches very well, and is a good cook ". 8 

1 Lyford, History of Concord, New Hampshire, from the Original 
Grant, etc., ii, p. 1051 ; Goodwin, The Pilgrim Republic, p. 191. 

3 One of these Indians who became a slave in the family of Mr. 
Richard Calicott of Dorchester, was afterward the tutor of John Eliot 
when the latter was learning the Indian language in prepara ion for 
his missionary work. Winslow, The Glorious Progresse of the Gos- 
pel among the Indians of New England, etc., in Massachusetts 
Historical Society Collections, series, 3, iv, p. 90; Tooker, Cockenoe- 
de-Long-Island, p. 12. 

8 Boston Gazette or Weekly Journal, November 15, 1748. 

* New England IVeek'y Journal, March 5, 1733. 

6 Boston News Letter, January 5, 1719. 

8 Boston News Letter, November 15, 1708. 

7 Pennsy'vania Gazette, March 7 and March 16, 1732. 

8 American Weekly Mercury, Apr 1 10, 1729. In 1715, Massachusetts 
granted an exception to the law against the importation of Ind.an 



244 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [496 

The agricultural system of New England was not favor- 
able to the use of slaves in the fields, yet there are occa- 
sional glimpses of Indian slaves employed in agricultural 
pursuits. In the account book of Lieutenant Stephen Long- 
fellow, 1710, appears the item: "Bouston one day to plant". 
Bouston was his Indian slave. 1 It has been considered 
probable, judging from the number of negro and Indian 
slaves in Rhode Island, that both were an important factor 
in developing the stock farming of the colony. 2 The news- 
paper advertisements of the day offer some information on 
this point : " A Carolina Indian man fit for any service 
within doors or without " ; 3 " An Indian boy about sixteen 
years old, fit for either sea or land service " ; 4 " An In- 
dian man ... fit for any service " ; 5 "A Survanam In- 
dian man, twenty-five years of age, who has been in the 
country thirteen years, fit for service in either country or 
town, and who can mow well ". 6 

In all the southern colonies Indian slaves worked in the 
fields side by side with the negroes up to the time of the 
Revolution. 7 The discovery, about 1693, °f r ^ ce as a profit- 
able staple for export, made necessary a large supply of 
labor in South Carolina ; hence along with the negroes so 
largely imported to meet the demand, the Indian slaves 

slaves to a gentleman from South Carolina, so that his Indian slave 
attendant might accompany his family to Massachusetts. Acts and Re- 
solves, ix, p. 412. 

1 Ewell, The Story of ByHeld, p 88. 

1 Channing, The Narragansett Planters, p. 10, in Johns Hopkins 
University Studies, iv. 

'Boston News Letter, March 11, 1717. 

'Boston News Letter, April 12, 1714. 

6 Boston News Letter, May 24, 1714. 

6 Boston News Letter, June 18 and June 25, 1724. 

7 Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 
1807-1898, p. 233. 



4 97] METHODS OF EMPLOYMENT 245 

worked also as the plantation system grew. In South Caro- 
lina, Governor Moore employed some of his Indian slaves 
in tilling his fields. 1 

The instances of Indian slaves employed by their owners 
in manual occupations are more numerous in New Eng- 
land than elsewhere. The newspapers furnish instances 
like the following : " An Indian lad about eighteen years 
old, a cooper by trade " 2 ". . . can do anything at the car- 
penter's trade " ; 3 " An Indian lad ... he can work at the 
weaver's trade ". 4 Similar advertisements are found in 
the New York papers : " An Indian man ... a good car- 
penter, wheelwright, cooper and butcher ". 5 

Such instances are to be found even in the south. 6 The 
training of Indian slaves to skilled labor was not gener- 
ally considered politic, however, since it interfered with 
the coming to the colonies of white craftsmen who were so 
much desired. In 1743 or 1744, a committee in South 
Carolina, appointed to consider the most effectual means 
of increasing immigration to the province, included in the 
bill which it originated, a clause prohibiting the bringing 
up of negroes and other slaves to those mechanical trades in 
which white persons are usually employed. 7 

Indian slaves were made a source of income to their 
owners by hiring them out to work in the same way as 
negroes and indentured white servants. The colonial laws 
in some instances made provision for such use. A South 

1 Hewa f , op. cit., i. p. 157. 

a Boston News Letter, March 21, 1715. 

8 Boston News Letter, July 23, 1716. 

* Boston Post Boy, May 2, 1743. 

• New York Gazette. June 24, 1734. 

6 Lawson, A New Voyage to Caro'ina, etc., p. 172. 
''Public Records of South Carolina, xxi, 1743-1744, p. 333; B. P. 
R. O., S. C, B. T., vol. xiii, H., p. 36. 



246 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [498 

Carolina law of 171 2 permitted an owner to hire out his 
slaves by the year or for a shorter time, and receive their 
earnings. 1 The provision was repeated in acts of 1735 2 
and 1740. 3 Maryland, in 1753, provided that masters of 
ships might hire servants or slaves from their owners. 4 
New York City, in 1731, made provision for owners hiring 
out negro and Indian slaves. 5 Since the custom was com- 
mon in its application to other servile classes, one may be- 
lieve that it was followed in other colonies besides those 
which made legal provision regarding it. 

The use of Indian slaves in military operations was not 
infrequent. In the New England wars Captain Church 
employed Indian captives against the enemy, a plan which 
he found serviceable on several occasions. 8 This use of 
Indian as well as negro slaves for military purposes was 
advocated in 1666 in a narrative addressed to the Duke of 
Albemarle. 7 

In the intercolonial wars both negro and Indian slaves 
were captured by the French from the English army. In 
French records dealing with occurrences in Canada, under 
date of November 11, 1747, "four negroes and a Panis 
who were captured from the English during the war 
..'.." are mentioned. 8 Still another possible proof of the 

1 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vii, p. 363. 

1 Ibid., vii, p. 393. 

* Ibid., vii, p. 409. 

i Bacon, Laws of Maryland. 

6 Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, iv, p. 85. 

6 Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, series 3, iv, p. 188. 

7 Calendar of State Papers, colonial series, v, p. 361. 

8 Northrup, Slavery in New York, in New York State Library Bul- 
letin, History, 1900, No. 4. The French considered these slaves as 
spoils of war which became the property of the captors exactly as if 
they were guns or any other implements. They were sent to " Mon- 
tinisco " (Martinique) and sold there for the benefit of the planners. 



499 ] METHODS OF EMPLOYMENT 247 

use of Indian slaves by the English army is found in the 
Articles of Peace drawn up at Niagara, July 18, 1764. 
They contain the following: " Article 2nd. That any Eng- 
lish who may be prisoners or deserters, and any negroes, 
Panis, or other slaves who are British property, shall be 
delivered up within a month to the commandant of Detroit, 
and that the Hurons use all possible endeavors to get those 
who are in the hands of the neighboring nations, engaging 
never to entertain any deserters, fugitives or slaves, but 
should any fly to them for protection, they are to deliver 
them up to the next commanding officer." l 

That such slaves were put to practical use in the military 
preparations of the colonies, is seen in the New York City 
ordinances of 1693 an< ^ 1694 which provided that all per- 
sons, and all negro and Indian slaves that were not listed, 
should work on the fortifications. 2 Such a town action 
was not unusual. In 1638, the townsmen of Hartford, Con- 
necticut, voted to levy on the cattle and slaves of the towns- 
people when needed for public service. 3 

South Carolina on different occasions offered induce- 
ments for slaves to serve in the war. Some of these acts 
mentioned Indian slaves. In 1704, an act was passed "for 
raising and enlisting such slaves as shall be thought ser- 
viceable to this province in time of alarms ". It provided 
for making a list of all negro, mulatto and Indian slaves in 
the province fit for service. The masters of the slaves 
were to be notified of such listing and given a chance to 
show cause why it should not be done. In case the slaves 
were called upon for service, the master must furnish 

1 Northrup, op. cit., in New York State Library Bulletin, History, 
May, 1900, No. 4. 

1 Minutes of the Common Council of the City of Nezv York, i, pp. 
329, 354- 

3 Porter. Historical Notes of Connecticut, No. 2, p. 13. 



248 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [500 

weapons according to specifications. If the slave were 
maimed or killed in the service, the owner should be com- 
pensated out of the public treasury. 1 

To provide still further for the use of slaves in war, it 
was decreed by a South Carolina act of 1719 that the cap- 
tains, lieutenants, and ensigns of the militia companies 
should form a list of negro, mulatto, mustee and Indian 
slaves from sixteen to sixty years of age fit for military 
service. Owners were given a chance to show why such 
slaves should not serve. These slaves when enlisted were 
to be armed and equipped by the captain of the division, 
or they might be armed by their owners, the latter to be 
compensated for loss or damage to their arms. A fine of 
£20 was fixed for neglect of any owner to send his slave 
in time of alarm to the usual place of rendezvous of the 
various divisions. Any officer neglecting to carry out the 
terms of the act was to be fined £5. A slave serving in 
war was to be allowed £10 reward if, on the testimony of a 
white person, he could prove that he had killed one of the 
enemy in time of invasion. The owner was to be indemni- 
fied from the public funds for a slave killed or wounded. 2 

In 1778, when Washington proposed to enlist slaves in the 
battalions raised by the State of Rhode Island, the assem- 
bly voted that every able bodied negro, mulatto or Indian 
man slave in the state might enlist in either battalion to 
serve during the continuance of the war. Such slave was 
to receive all the bounties, wages and encouragements al- 
lowed by the Continental Congress to any soldier enlisting 

1 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vii, p. 347. 

2 Ibid , iii, p. 109. South Carolina, however, did not favor the 
traders using their Indian slaves to wage war w thout the authority of 
the colonial governmen'. Among the instructions given the traders 
was this one: "You shall not permit or allow any of your slaves to 
go to war on any pretence whatever." Indian Book, 1710-1718, Colum- 
bia, South Carolina Historical Commission Department, i, p. 19. 



tjOl] METHODS OF EMPLOYMENT 249 

in the service, and in addition was immediately to be set 
free. 1 

It is noticeable that in this legislation regarding the use 
of slaves in war, no provision was made for their military 
training. Such training would require too much time, 
and besides being a loss to the owners, might prove 
dangerous to the colony if the slaves were sufficiently 
numerous. Maryland recognized this fact and in 17 15 
voted to exclude slaves from such training. 2 

Just as the Spanish and the French made diplomatic and 
military use of their Indian slaves by returning them to 
their own tribes and thus winning friendship and peace, 
so the English followed the same practice. In 171 5, in 
order to secure the aid of the Tuscarora, the assembly of 
South Carolina voted that, for every one of these allies 
killed in actual warfare by the enemy, a Tuscarora slave 
then in servitude among the whites should be given them 
for the loss, and that to every Tuscarora taking an Indian 
enemy captive, a slave of his nation should similarly be as- 
signed as a reward. 3 

1 Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 
viii, pp. 359-361. 
* Bacon, Laws of Maryland. 
1 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, ii, p. 636. 



CHAPTER XI 

Treatment 

The treatment of Indian slaves apparently differed in 
no essential degree from that of the negroes. The slaves of 
the two races lived and worked together ; but since the negroes 
were in the majority, the treatment of slaves in general was 
determined by the ordinary usage which the whites accord- 
ed them in particular. It is customary for writers dealing 
with early slavery among both the English and French of 
America to declare it mild in nature. 1 The statement ap- 
pears to be true. The system was patriarchal in nature, 
though it is doubtful if race feeling among the English 
was ever so nearly obliterated, and a condition of fellow- 
ship approaching equality ever so fully developed, as in the 
case of the French. Individual cases of cruelty and harsh 
treatment undoubtedly existed as they must exist in all cases 
of servitude; but Indian slavery never became an institution 
sufficiently well organized to make harsh treatment general. 
There was never anything in either the English or French 
colonies corresponding to the labor gang used by the Span- 
ish. The number of Indian slaves in a locality was too 
small for that ; nor did the service which the colonists re- 
quired of their Indian slaves demand it. Kind treatment. 

1 Usher, History of the Town of Medford, Middlesex County, Massa- 
chusetts, etc., p. 352; Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 
1885-1887, new series, iv, p. 214; Field, Provincial Courts of New 
Jersey, pp. 130-131 ; Washburn. Historical Sketches of Leicester, p. 51. 
250 [502 



5 03] TREATMENT 25 1 

however, did not exclude the infliction of corporal punish- 
ment, if thought needful. 1 

To judge from the frequent newspaper advertisements 
of runaways, the Indian slaves of the English colonists 
were at least comfortably dressed. The following are 
typical extracts from the newspapers of the various colo- 
nies : " a black crape gown and a striped stuff jacket " ; "a 
blue flannel petticoat, a dark Estamine gown and a double 
striped gown " ; 2 "a grey coat with pewter buttons, with 
leather breeches, an old tow shirt, grey stockings, good 
shoes and felt hat " ; 3 "a green hat and yellow breeches" ; 4 
" an orange colored broadcloth coat, with a narrow cape, 
and a flannel jacket with narrow stripes, a cotton shirt, and 
a loose pair of Oxenbridge trousers ... a beaver hat, 
and had a bundle of clothes with him" ; 5 "an old blue coat, 
striped flannel jacket, pretty good hat, black wig, linen 
trousers, white yarn stockings, and an old pair of mended 
shoes"; 6 "a good felt hat, orange colored jacket, thick 
leather breeches, checked wool shirt, light grey stockings 
and pretty good shoes " : 7 " pea-jacket of light brown, 
leather breeches, shoes, stockings and hat " ; s " a drugat 
waistcoat and kersey petticoat of a light color ". 9 From 
these advertisements it appears that the slaves were dressed 

1 It is recorded of the Rev. Peter Thacher of Milton, Massachusetts. 
in 1679, that he beat his Indian slave severely for letting his daughter, 
Theodora, fall on her head. Earle, Customs and Fashions in Old New 
England, p. 84; Sheldon, History of Deerfield, ii, p. 888. 

* Boston Gazette, April 7, 1718. 

1 Boston News Letter, October 4, 1739. 

* Boston News Letter, May 23, 1745. 

5 Boston News Letter, October 30, 1760. 

6 Boston Post Boy, July 6, 1752. 

: Boston Weekly Mercury, October 2, 1735. 

8 American Weekly Mercury, August 28, 1729. 

9 American Weekly Mercury, May 24, 1726. 



252 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [504 

much like the colonists themselves, though doubtless their 
clothing often consisted of " cast offs ". In the Carolinas 
where slaves were more numerous, coarse goods were im- 
ported by the planters for slaves' clothing. Mention is 
found of " serge suits for the servant maids, of coarse ker- 
seys, tufted holland jackets, etc.", with which the planta- 
tion was wont to be supplied for the slaves and convict ser- 
vants. These were used in addition to cloth woven and 
made into clothes by the women of the household. 1 

Generally kind as the treatment of Indian slaves may 
have been, the sentiment of the English colonists was quite 
opposed to the intermingling of whites and Indians, bond 
or free, even if in the early history of Virginia there was 
some effort made to encourage the marriage of whites and 
free Indians. 2 It was natural, therefore, that definite action 
should be taken to prevent the marriage of free whites and 
Indian slaves. In 1691, Virginia passed an act forbidding the 
union of free whites with Indians whether slave or free; 
but there seems to have been no provision against marriage 
of negroes or Indians with white indentured servants. 3 
The provision, perhaps, was unnecessary, for the consent 
of the white indentured servant's master was necessary for 
the validity of such a union, and such consent was usually 
refused because of the strong prejudice against race mix- 
ture. 4 

1 Hawks, History of North Carolina, etc., second edition, ii, p. 577. 

' The Rev. Peter Fontaine advoca'ed intermarriage w'th the Indians 
as a means of promoting their Christian'za ion and civilization. 
Colonel Byrd favored the plan also. Meade, Old Churches, Ministers 
and Families of Virginia, i, pp. 82, 283-285. 

1 Hening, op. cit , iii. p. 87. The act also forbade the marr'age of 
free whites and mulattoes or negroes bond or free. Banishment was 
the punishment for such a marriage. 

* Bruce, The Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth 
Century, ii, p. 38. 



505] TREATMENT 2 53 

North Carolina, also, in 171 5, passed an act forbidding 
the marriage of whites with negroes, mulattoes or Indians, 
under penalty of £50, and making clergymen celebrating 
such a marriage liable to a fine of £50.' A later act of 1741 
provided a fine of £50 for the marriage of any white man 
or woman with an Indian, negro, mustee, mulatto, or any 
person of mixed blood to the third generation, bond or free. 
Any minister or justice of the peace performing such a 
service was punishable by a fine of £50. 2 Maryland, on its 
own part, in 1692, passed an act against the marriage or 
promiscuous sexual relations of whites and negroes or 
other slaves. Any white person so offending was to be- 
come a servant for seven years, if free at the time of the 
marriage. If already a servant, he or she must serve seven 
years after the end of the present term of service. 3 

The same feeling existed in New England. A Massa- 
chusetts act of 1692 forbade the marriage, under severe 
penalty, of any white person with a negro, Indian or mu- 
latto. Mixed marriages of whites and Indians, like those 
admired by Sewall in 1702, 4 did occur, however, in New 
England, 8 and it appears probable that some of these mar- 
riages were with the enslaved captives of King Philip's 
War and the Indian slaves imported from Carolina. 

Considering, further, the determination of legal relations 
between the whites and the Indian slaves, it should be re- 
membered that, when not specifically referred to, Indian 
slaves were included by implication in the legislative acts of 
the various colonies relating to slaves. Sufficient proof of 

1 Trott, Laws of the British Plantations in America, etc., p. 100. 

2 Martin, The Public Acts of the General Assembly of North Caro- 
lina, i, pp. 45-46. 

* Archives of Maryland, xiii, pp. 546-549. 

* Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, series 5, vi, p. 143. 

5 Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, i, p. 403. 



254 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [506 

this statement lies in the tact that Indian slaves are directly 
mentioned in certain of the legislative acts of any given col- 
ony, whereas other acts of the same colony specify slaves, 
negroes and other slaves, or negro and mulatto slaves. 1 In 
one colony, Virginia, the term " mulatto " was made to 
include Indians by the act of 1705, which provided that the 
child of an Indian should be "deemed, accounted, held and 
taken to be a mulatto." 2 

It was a part of the universal law of slavery in the south- 
ern colonies that a slave should not be allowed to testify 
against a white person in the courts. 3 South Carolina, by 
the acts of 1712, 4 1722 B and 1735, 6 permitted "negroes 
and other slaves " to testify in the trial of any slave accused 
of specified crimes and offenses. Certain of the colonies, 
by express provision, forbade Indian slaves to give testi- 
mony in the trial of whites. North Carolina declared that 
" all negroes, mulattoes, bond and free to the third genera- 
tion, and Indian servants and slaves, shall be deemed to be 
taken as persons incapable in law to be witnesses in any 
case whatever except against each other". 7 Virginia, 

1 Bruce, The Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Cen- 
tury, ii, p. 130, says of the Indian slaves of Virginia: " The regulations 
established for the management of such slaves were practically the same 
as those in operation for the control of Africans. They were brought 
within the scope of every measure adopted for the protection of the 
negro slaves, and morally as well as materially s ood precisely upon the 
same foo ing in the view of the law." McCrady, Slavery in the 
Province of South Carolina, in Annual Report of the American 
Historical Association for 1895, P- 642, states: "In South Carolina 
from 1690 onward, all acts concerning slaves apply to Indians as well 
as negroes." 

* Hening, op. cit., iii, p. 252. 

3 Bassett, Slavery and Servitude in the Co'ony of North Carolina, 
p. 29, in Johns Hopkins University Studies, xiv. 

4 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vii, p 357. 

5 Ibid., vii, pp. 375-376. 6 Ibid., vii, p. 389. 

7 Bassett, op. cit , pp. 29-30, in Johns Hopkins University Studies, xiv 



507] TREATMENT 2 $$ 

1705, decreed that " popish recusants, convict negroes, mu- 
lattoes and Indian servants and others not being Christians, 
shall be deemed and taken to be persons incapable in law to 
be witnesses in any case whatsoever ". 1 In 1732, the same 
colony decreed that the evidence of any negro or Indian 
slave might be received in the trial of any slave, but was 
not valid in the trial of any other person. 2 Maryland de- 
clared, in 1 71 7, that it would be dangerous to allow the evi- 
dence of any negro, mulatto or Indian slave in the trial of 
a freeman, but conceded that, if evidence was lacking in 
cases regarding any negro, mulatto or Indian slaves, that 
such slaves might give testimony for or against themselves 
and one another. 3 In some of the northern colonies, at least, 
acts were passed forbidding slaves to give testimony in the 
trial of white persons. The New York law of 1706 is a 
case in point. 4 This feature of the law of evidence was re- 
newed from time to time in the various colonies and con- 
tinued until the Revolution. 

The right to life was generally conceded all slaves regard- 
less of color. At least one colony, New Hampshire, 1708, 
in an act guaranteeing this right, included Indian slaves by 
specific mention. 5 This and other rights could be protected 
by appeal to the courts. If not otherwise provided for, the 
mode of trial used by the colonists themselves was em- 
ployed in the case of Indian slaves, negroes and free In- 
dians. 6 Special legislation concerning the trial of slaves 

1 Hening, op. cit., iii, p. 298. 

1 Ibid , iv, p. 327. 

8 Maxcy, Lazvs of Maryland, i, p. 140. 

4 Hurd, The Law of Freedom and Bondage in the United States, 
p. 281. This act does not specifically men' ion Indian slaves. 

8 Laws of New Hampshire, edition of 1771, p. 101. 

6 Bruce. The Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Cen- 
tury, i, p. 673. 



256 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [508 

was enacted by all the English colonies. It has been said 
that for an Indian to gain his point in an English court, 
unless his case was an extremely strong one, was a rare 
occurrence. 1 Whether the statement is generally true in the 
case of either free or slave Indians, might be difficult to 
decide. Doubtless the Indian slave supported by his master 
possessed a better chance of obtaining justice than the free 
Indian. Since a slave was owned body and soul, and there- 
fore had no right to life except as the same might be con- 
ceded by his owner and the authorities, it may be said that 
whatever legal rights he had were granted for the protec- 
tion of the slave owners in their property rights and for 
the general safety of the community, rather than because of 
any special consideration of justice toward the slave him- 
self. 

Virginia, in 1692, provided special courts for the trial of 
slaves. 2 The provisions regarding these courts were changed 
from time to time. By the act of 1765 it was provided that 
the justices be given a standing commission of oyer and 
terminer empowering them to try without a jury all crimi- 
nal offenses committed by slaves in their respective coun- 
ties. 3 In accordance with thse provisions one finds the 
Earl of Dunmore issuing a commission in 1772 to certain 
justices in the county of the present state of West Virginia, 
authorizing them to serve as a court for the trial of negro 
and Indian slaves. 4 

The Massachusetts general court provided, 1647, that 
one or more of the magistrates, according to agreement 

1 Drake, The Book of the Indians, ninth edition, bk. iii, p. 16. 

1 Chitwood, Justice in Colonial Virginia, p. 99, in Johns Hopkins 
University Studies, xxxiii. 

3 Hening, op. cit., vi'i, pp. 137-138. 

* Aler, History of Martinsberg and Berkeley Counties, West Vir- 
ginia, pp. 200, 201. 



5 09] TREATMENT 257 

among themselves, should hold a court every quarter to 
hear and determine all cases civil and criminal, except those 
involving capital punishment, which might concern Indians, 
and that minor offenses should be tried by the sachems 
themselves. 1 At the first general court held on Martha's 
Vineyard, June 18, 1672, it was ordered that an Indian 
should have liberty in any case to appeal from such courts 
as they held among themselves to the quarter court, and 
from the quarter court to the general court. 2 

A New Jersey act of 1713 provided for the trial of any 
negro, Indian or mulatto slave accused of committing mur- 
der, rape, etc., by a justice and five freeholders. But if the 
owner of such slave should desire a jury, the privilege 
might be allowed him. He also had the right to challenge 
jurors as in other cases of like nature. 3 The act was re- 
pealed in 1 768. 4 

By a New York act of 171 2, three justices and five free- 
holders of the county constituted judge and jury, seven 
making a quorum, for the trial of negro and Indian slaves 
accused of murder, rape, insurrection or conspiracy. The 
prosecution provided the accusation to which the offended 

1 Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, series 3, iv, p. 48. A 
Spanish Indian slave was tried and acquitted by the Court of Assist- 
ants of Massachuset's Bay, in 1676. Records of the Court of Assistants 
of Massachusetts Bay, i, p. 15. Sewall mentions Indians (probably free 
Indians) tried, condemned and executed for crimes in Massachusetts 
in 1709. Sewall's Dairy, in Massachusetts Historical Society Collec- 
tions, series 5, vi, pp. 264, 265. 

2 Hough, Papers relating to the Island of Nantucket, etc., p. 50. 

* Nevill, Acts of the General Assembly of the Province of New 
Jersey, i, p. 19. 

4 Allinson, Acts of the General Assembly of the Province of New 
Jersey, p. 309. Another act passed in 1768 provided for the trial in 
specified courts of slaves convicted of certain crimes. Indian slaves 
were not directly mentioned. Allinson, op. cit., p. 308: New Jersey 
Archives, series 1, xvii, p. 486; xxvi, p. 163. 



258 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [510 

was obliged to plead apparently without the aid of counsel. 
The owner of the slave was- given the right, however, to 
have his slave tried by a jury of twelve, provided he paid 
the jury charges of nine shillings. 1 An act of 1730 changed 
the required number of justices to three, one to be a 
quorum, associated with five of the principal freeholders of 
the county. Agreement of seven was required for the de- 
cision. In this case, as before, the owner could have his 
slave tried by a jury of twelve if he paid the jury charges 
of nine shillings. 2 

There was a general tendency among slave owners to con- 
ceal crimes committed by slaves, or to secrete slave offend- 
ers and thus avoid the financial loss consequent upon the 
time consumed by the trial and the possible imprisonment 
of the slave in case of conviction, as well as the possible in- 
jury to the slave by corporal punishment, or the still greater 
loss of the slave's entire value in case of his execution. To 
prevent this interference with justice, as well as to recog- 
nize and protect the property rights of the slave owners, 
special acts were passed in some of the colonies providing 
that the slave owner be remunerated by the colonial gov- 
ernment in case of the loss of his slave through execution 
for crime. In some colonies the amount to be paid the 
owner of a slave was specified by law, and this amount 
varied from £30 for a man slave, and £20 for a woman 
slave (negro, Indian or mulatto), as provided for in 
a New Jersey act of 1713, 3 to £50 in a South Carolina act 
of 1717. 4 In other colonies the amount to be paid the slave 

1 New York Colonial Laws, edition of 1894, i, p 766. 

1 Ibid., ii, pp. 684-685. 

s Nevill, op. cit., i. p. 21. The act was repealed, May 10, 1768. 
Allinson, op. cit., p. 309. 

* The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vii, p. 369. By th : s act 
nothing was awarded the owner if the slave was executed for murder. 



tju] TREATMENT 259 

owner was left to the decision of the court. The Maryland 
act of 1 71 7 x is a case in point. It provided that the court 
should value the slave (negro, mulatto or Indian) in 
tobacco, and that three-fourths of the value thus adjudged 
should be allowed in the public levy to be paid to the owner 
of the slave. 

In all of the colonies the conduct of Indian slaves as well 
as that of other slaves was necessarily subject to police 
regulations, and punishments were decreed for their viola- 
tion. These regulations did not differ greatly in the various 
colonies, for the problems arising from the use of slaves 
varied but little in their nature. Among the prohibitions 
laid on Indian slaves specifically were the following: to be 
away from home without the owner's permission ; 2 the pos- 
session of fire arms ; 3 and engaging in certain kinds of 

1 Bacon, Laws of Mary' and. Other Maryland acts of 1737, 1740, 
1744, 1747, 1751, 1754, 1757, and 1762, required that the full adjudged 
value be paid the owner of any slave executed by law. Bacon, op. cit. 

2 Massachusetts, 1703, Acts and Resolves, i, p 535; Rhode Island. 
1704, Rhode Island Historical Society Collections, vii, p. 230; 1750, 
Records of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, v, p. 320; and 

1770, Rhode Is'and Lazvs, edi ion of 1772, pp. 24, 25; Block Island, 
1709, Livermore, A History of Block Island from its Discovery, etc., 
p. 01 ; New Hampshire, 1714, Lazvs of New Hampshire, edition of 

1771, P- 5 2 - Connecticut, in 1750, forbade Indian slaves being abroad 
after nine o'clock at night without the owner's permission. Acts and 
Laws of Connecticut, edition of 1750, p. 230. New York City, in 1713, 
stated the latest time at wh'ch Indian slaves could be away from 
home without their masters' permiss'on as one hour after sunset. 
Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, iii, p. 177; 
and 1751, Ibid., iv, p. 87. Rhode Island, 1667, forbade any Ind an 1o 
walk about in the night time. Livermore, op cit., 61. New Jersey, 
1713, forbade any negro, Indian or mulatto slave to go five miles 
from home without his master's permiss'on. Nevill, op. cit., i, p. 21. 

3 Massachusetts, during King Fhilip's War, Bayl'es, op. c't., p\ iii, 
p. 189; Block Island, 1675, Livermore, op. cit., p 60; New Hampshire, 
1680, Laws of New Hampshire, edition of 1904, i, p. 288 (The act 
referred simply to Indians without specifying bond or free) ; the city 



2 6o INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [512 

traffic. 1 Boston decreed, 1728, that no Indian, negro or mu- 
latto should carry stick or cane within the town. 2 In 1778, 
when forming its first proposed constitution, Massachusetts 
excepted from the franchise " negroes, Indians and mu- 
lattoes, bound and free ". 3 In an act of 1660 the Connec- 
ticut general court declared that neither negro nor Indian 
servants should be required to " train, watch or ward ". 4 
In 1676, New York City excluded all Indian and negro 
slaves from the privilege of being carters, and in the same 
year passed an act to prevent the revels of Indian and negro 
slaves at inns. 5 An ordinance of the Albany city council, 
1686, forbade any negro or Indian slave to drive a 
cart within the city. 6 A New York act of 1731, also, pro- 
vided for regulating the conduct of negroes and Indians 
in the night time. 7 

Few of the acts of colonial legislatures decreeing punish- 
ment for various offenses mention Indian slaves ; yet in the 
following colonies the death penalty was to be inflicted upon 

of Albany, 1686, Munsell, Annals of Albany, viii, 296; New York City, 
1683, Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, 
i, 134; Pennsylvania, 1721, The Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania, 
iii, p. 254. 

1 Massachusetts, 1693, Acts and Resolves, i, p. 156; New York, 1715, 
New York Colonial Laws, edition of 1894, i, pp. 157, 519; New Jersey, 
1682 and 1713, Learning and Spicer, Grants and Concessions, p. 254; 
Nevill, op. cit., i, p. 18. 

s Winsor, The Memorial History of Boston, ii, p. 485. 

1 Moore, Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts, p. 191. 

* Connecticut Colonial Records, i, p. 349; Stiles, The History and 
Genealogies of Ancient Winsor, i, p. 434. 

5 Watson, Annals and Occurrences of New York City and State, 
P. 158. 

6 Weise, The History of the City of Albany, p. 209. 

7 Dunlap, History of the Nezv Netherlands, etc., ii, appendix, p. 
clxiii. 



5 !3] TREATMENT 2 6l 

Indian slaves convicted of certain crimes: l by North Caro- 
lina, in 1 74 1, for the second offense of killing horses, cattle 
or hogs, and for stealing, mismarking or misbranding such 
animals; 2 by New Jersey, in 1713, for murder, or con- 
spiracy, or attempt to murder, 3 and in 1768, for rape, for 
wilfully burning any dwelling-house, barn, stable, outhouse, 
stacks' of corn or hay, for wilfully mutilating, maiming or 
dismembering any person, for manslaughter, for stealing 
any sum of money above the value of £5, and for com- 
mitting any felony or burglary. 4 

Branding as a punishments for Indian slaves was de- 
creed by the Massachusetts general court. Runaway Pequot 
slaves were so punished. 5 Judging from the descriptions 
of runaway Indian slaves contained in the colonial news- 
papers, some form of branding or marking such culprits 
was used until a late period. These brands or marks some- 
times took the form of letters or symbols pricked into the 
skin by gunpowder or India ink. They were placed usually 
on the forehead or the cheeks. 6 

1 The slave code of South Carolina was more elaborate than that of 
any other colony. But the various laws rela ing to trial and punish- 
ment of slaves make no mention of Indian slaves, though as has been 
seen, Indian slaves were more numerous in that colony than elsewhere. 

1 Martin, The Public Acts of the General Assembly of North Caro- 
lina, 1715-1803, i, p. 50. 

3 Nevill, op. cit., i, p. 19. 

4 Allinson, of. cit., p. 308. By the terms of the act, the court couH, 
if it thought best, inflict punishment other than death for some of 
these crimes. 

5 Winthrop, Journal, in Original Narratives of Early American His- 
tory, i, p. 226. 

6 New England Courant, June 17, 1723; Pennsylvania Gazette, Octo- 
ber 12, 1738; American Week'y Mercury, August 28, 1729, and August 
6, 1730; New Eng'and Weekly Journal, December 2, 1728. These 
marks may, in some instances, have been tattooed for decorative 
purposes. The Sou h Carolina acts of 1712 decreed branding as pun- 
ishment for specified crimes committed by " slaves." The Statutes at 
Large of South Carolina, vii, pp. 359"36o, 374. 376, 377. 



262 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [514 

Whipping, the most common punishment provided by 
law for Indian as well as other slaves, was decreed by dif- 
ferent colonies as follows: by North Carolina, in 1741, to 
consist of thirty-nine lashes well laid on, for giving false 
testimony in court, killing any domestic animal without 
the owner's consent, and for stealing, mismarking or mis- 
branding such animals; 1 by Pennsylvania, in 1721, for 
making, selling or using any fireworks or firearms in Phila- 
delphia, 2 and in 175 1 , for taking part in horse races or 
shooting matches without a license, fifteen lashes for the 
first offense and twenty-one for the second ; 3 by New Jer- 
sey, in 1713, for stealing to the value of six pence;* by 
New York City, in 1682, for absence from their owners' 
homes or plantations without ticket of leave in owners' 
handwriting, 5 in 1683, ten lashes for meeting together at 
any place on Sunday or any other day in groups of more 
than four, and possessing arms, unless the owner paid six 
shillings in lieu of the penalty, 6 in 171 3 7 and 1731, 8 thirty- 
nine lashes for being found in the city streets, if above the 
age of fourteen years, later than one hour after sunset, 
in 1 72 1, 9 and 1731, 10 for gambling, in 1731, for attending a 
funeral in groups of more than twelve, 11 for disorderly rid- 

1 Martin, The Public Acts of the General Assembly of North Caro- 
lina, 1715-1803, i, p. 50. 

* The Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania, iii, p. 254. 
s Ibid , v, p. 109. 

4 Nevill, op. cit., i, p. 22. 

5 Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, i, p. 92. 

6 Ibid., i, p. 134. 
1 Ibid., iii, p. 30. 

8 Ibid., iv, p. 50. The whipping was to be given, if desired, by the 
master or owner of the slave. 

9 Ibid , iii, p. 177. 

10 Ibid., iv, p. 87. 

11 Ibid., iv, p. 88. 



5I5 ] TREATMENT 263 

ing through the streets, 1 and for selling " the Fish Com- 
monly Called and known by the name of Bass " in the 
months of December, January and February, 2 and in 
l 759> f° r committing any nuisance in the streets; 3 by 
Connecticut, in 1750, forty lashes for publishing or speak- 
ing such words of and concerning any other person, which, 
if spoken or published by a white person, would be consid- 
ered by law objectionable, 4 and for being abroad after nine 
o'clock at night; 5 and by Massachusetts, in 1693, for deal- 
ing in stolen goods. 6 The town of Med ford, Massachu- 
setts, ordered, in 1734, that all negro, Indian or mulatto 
slaves found abroad without leave and not on their masters' 
business were to be punished by whipping. 7 Block Island, 
finally, in 1709, provided ten lashes as punishment for any 
negro or Indian slave abroad after nine o'clock at night. 8 
Punishment by mutilation was sometimes used, especially 
in the southern colonies. 9 North Carolina, in 1741, pro- 

1 Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, iv, p. 89. 

2 Ibid., vi, p. 157. 

s Ibid., vi, p. 177. The city ordinances were usually continued one 
year and were then renewed. In this way the ord nances mentioned 
were in many cases continued into the Revolutionary period The rec- 
ords of the early eighteenth century show the frequent punishment of 
" slaves, negroes and Indians " for being out too late at night, col- 
lecting in too large groups, noisy revel. ng and gambl'ng. On such 
occasion the owner of the slaves was fined. Watson, Annals and 
Occurrences of New York City and State, etc., p 162. 

* Acts and Laws of Connecticut, edition of 1750, p. 240. 
5 Ibid., p. 230. 

• Acts and Reso\es, i, p. 156. 

7 The Medford Historical Register, iii, 1900. No. 3, p. 121. The 
master also was to be fined for h's negligence. 

8 Livermore, A History of Block Island from its Discovery, etc., p. 61. 

9 The South Carolina act of 1690 provided various sors of mut'la- 
tion for any slave convicted of specified crimes. The Statutes at 
Large of South Carolina, vii, pp. 359"36o- 



264 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [516 

vided that any slave, negro or Indian, giving false testi- 
mony in any court was to have an ear nailed to the pillory 
and to stand there for an hour, after which the ear was to 
be cut off. The other ear was then to be nailed in like 
manner and cut off at the expiration of an hour. By the 
same act the cutting off of both ears was made a partial 
punishment for killing horses, cattle or hogs without the 
consent of the owner, and for stealing, misbranding or mis- 
marking such animals. 1 

Certain of the colonies attempted to prevent the sale of 
spirituous liquors to Indian and other slaves. At the time 
of King Philip's War, Massachusetts forbade the sale of 
liquor without license to any Indian or negro. 2 New Hamp- 
shire, 1686, passed a similar act. 3 In the same year the 
common council of Albany prohibited the selling of liquor 
to Indian slaves without the owners' permission. 4 

Considering still another phase of treatment, namely, 
that which had to do with religious instruction, it may be 
said that, among the early regulations of the British gov- 
ernment for the colonies, it was required that measures be 
taken whereby " slaves may be best invited to the Christian 
faith and be made capable of being baptized therein". 5 In 
the instructions to the colonial governors the home govern- 
ment not infrequently gave directions for the conversion of 
both negroes and Indians, but the Indians referred to were 
free, not slave. The enslaved natives were in too great a 
minority to attract attention ; but any effort to instruct and 

1 Martin, The Public Acts of the General Assembly of North Caro- 
lina, 1715-1803, i, p. 50. 
1 Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, series 2, xiii, p. 252. 
1 Laws of New Hampshire, edition of 1004, i, p. 117. 

4 VVeise, The History of the City of A bany, p. 209. 

5 New York Colonial Manuscripts, Instructions, etc., 1660, quoted 
in Baird, History of Rye, p. 185. 



5I7 ] TREATMENT 2 6$ 

convert the negroes must, of course, include the former 
by implication. 1 

The good intentions of the home government for the 
conversion of slaves were commonly frustrated by the 
popular belief that baptism conferred freedom upon slaves. 
The general attitude of slave owners in all the colonies was 
to oppose or forbid the religious instruction and conversion 
of negro and Indian slaves. They argued that the instruc- 
tion and conversion of slaves tended to make them disre- 
spectful and unreliable and hence decreased their value. 
Consequently the religious training of slaves in the earlier 
colonial period depended upon the personal teaching of the 
owner's family. 2 This conditions of affairs appealed 
strongly to the missionaries of the Society for the Propa- 
gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts 3 on their coming to 
America primarily to work among the Indian tribes. In 
the reports sent to their Society early in the eighteenth cen- 
tury they lamented the unenlightened condition of the 
slaves, and urged that they be allowed to work among 
them where they believed their efforts would accomplish 
more than among the Indian tribes. The Society granted 

1 The instructions lo Governor Dongan, 1686; Andros, 1688; Slough- 
ter, 1689; Fletcher, 1691-1699; Bellomont, 1709, of New York: Cornbury 
of New Jersey, 1702, are cases in po'nt. 

2 Morgan Godwyn, writing to Governor Berkeley of general relig : ous 
conditions in Virginia, says : "All th'ngs concerning the church and 
religion were left to the mercy of the people. And, last of all, to 
propagate Christianity among the heathen, whether na ives or slaves 
brought from other ports, although (as must piously be supposed) 
it were the only end of God's discover'ng these countries to us, yet 
is that lookt upon by our new race of Christians, so idle and 
ridiculous, so utterly needless and unnecessary, that no man can for- 
feit his judgment more than by any proposed looking or tending 'hat 
way" Tiffany, History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the 
United States, p. 33. 

* Incorporated June 16, 1701. 



2 66 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [518 

their requests and gave them special instructions to look 
after the spiritual interests of all slaves. 1 Their subsequent 
reports, though they dealt primarily with negro slaves, 
sometimes made mention of Indian slaves, and show that 
there was no distinction in religious matteis between the 
slaves of the two races. 

A letter from Samuel Thomas to the Society, December 
21, 1705, told of the employment of negro and Indian slaves 
on the Lord's Day ; ' but in a memorial of the same year he 
rejoiced in the prospect of bringing many Indian and negro 
slaves to the knowledge and practice of Christianity. 3 In a 
letter of the following year he urged that the Society give 
the missionaries strict charge to labor with great diligence 
in the conversion of the Indian and negro slaves in the re- 
spective parishes. 4 In 1710, he reported that there was sev- 
eral unconverted Apalachee slaves in his parish whom he 
was especially anxious to baptize." Le Jau, another mission- 
ary in South Carolina, reported, in 1708, that the masters 
opposed the baptism and marriage of their slaves, and de- 
clared that " many masters cannot be persuaded that 
negroes and Indians are otherwise than beasts and use them 
like such ". 6 In the same year he reported many Indian 
and negro slaves instructed and on probation for baptism/ 

1 Humphreys, An Historical Account of the Incorporated Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, p. 90. 

2 South Carolina Historical and Genealog'cal Magazine, v, p. 26. 
The Society ordered the secretary to lay the matter before the Bishop 
of London and ask his lordship's advice regarding such abuse. 

* Ibid., v, p. 37. * Ibid , v, p. 47. 

5 Ibid., v, p. 98. Mr. Thomas was appointed in 1702 the first mis- 
sionary of the Society in South Carolina. 

6 Hawkins, Historical Notices of the Missions of the Church of 
England in the North American Colonies, pp. 50, 73. 

7 Letter of Le Jau, February 18, 1708-1709, to the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Humphreys, op. cit.. 
PP- 83, 84. 



5 I 9 ] TREATMENT 267 

In 1 7 10, also, certain masters had so far yielded in their 
opposition to the religious training of slaves as to allow 
Indian and negro slaves to remain a half -hour after the 
services for instruction. 1 In 171 1, one Indian slave and 
thirty negro slaves had joined the church in his parish, 2 and 
he was catechizing " negroes and other slaves " with their 
masters' consent, 3 though then, and even at a later period, 
other masters in the same parish (Goose Creek) opposed 
his work among the slaves. 4 Where such consent was 
granted, the slaves were often required to declare that they 
were not being baptized out of any effort to free them- 
selves. 5 From still another South Carolina parish (St. 
Thomas) the pastor, Haskell, wrote in 171 1 that he was 
encouraging the conversion of Indian and negro slaves, 
and that he was also trying to persuade their masters to his 
mind. 6 He met with some success, for another letter of 
the same year recorded the baptism of two negroes and an 
Indian slave. 7 As late as 1730, however, he reported that 
the religious instruction of Indian and negro slaves was ob- 
structed by irreligious and worldly people. 8 In 1707. 
Dunn, the pastor of a parish thirty miles from Charleston 
reported that he met great difficulty in persuading masters 
to allow their Indian and negro slaves to receive religious 
instruction or to be baptized, since they believed that bap- 
tism would free slaves. 9 

1 Letter of Le Jau, June 13, 1710, to the S. P. G F. P. 

* Letter of Le Jau, February 20-21, 171 1, to the S. P. G. F. P. 

* Letter of Le Jau, September 5 and 18. 1711, to the S. P. G F. P. 

* Letter of Le Jau, December 11, 1712, to the S. P. G. F. P. 
5 Letter of Le Jau, October 20, 1709, to the S. P. G F. P. 

* Letter of Haskell, March 12, 171 1, to the S. P. G. F. P. 

' Letter of Haskell, September 4, 1711, 10 the S. P. G F. P. 
5 Records of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
Foreign Parts, vol. xxiii, bk. vii. 
9 Letter of Dunn, April 21, 1707, to the S. P. G. F. P. 



2 68 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [520 

The same attitude of masters concerning the religious in- 
struction of their slaves was reported from other colonies 
by the missionaries of the Society in question. But since 
the number of Indian slaves in no other colony was as large 
as in South Carolina, the mention of them by the mission- 
aries is far less frequent, when made at all. Sharpe of New 
York, in a letter of 17 12, mentioned two Spanish Indian 
slaves who were Christians. 1 Neau of New York reported 
much opposition of masters to his work among the slaves. 2 
But Governor Cornbury promised to help him, 3 and evi- 
dently his labors were successful, for a report in 1726 
alluded to fourteen hundred negro and Indian slaves, many 
of whom had been instructed by Neau. 4 

Since in general the religious instruction of servants and 
slaves was recognized as a duty by both the civil and eccle- 
siastical authorities in England, the response of the Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to these 
letters and reports was encouraging, and the missionaries 
were directed to do all in their power for the education and 
conversion of all slaves.'' On one occasion the Society 
went so far as to draft a bill to be introduced into Parlia- 
ment providing for the more effectual conversion of ne- 
groes and servants in the plantation, 6 and also petitioned 
the Archbishop of Canterbury that his majesty be requested 
to encourage the passage of laws in the colonies to the 
effect that baptism did not confer freedom upon slaves. 7 

1 Letter of Sharpe, June 23, 1712, to the S. P. G. F. P. 

2 Le ter of Neau, July 4, 1704, to the S. P. G. F P. 

3 Letter of Neau, August 29, 1704, to the S. P. G. F. P. 

4 Letter of Chuardens, July 15, 1726, to the S. P. G. F. P. 

5 Kennet, An Account of the Society for Propagating the Gospel 
in Foreign Parts, etc., p. 61. 

6 Ibid., p 61. 

1 loitrnal of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in For- 
eign Parts, vol. i, April 19, 1705-1706. 



5 2 1 ] TREA THEN T 269 

The colonial clergy similarly tried to obtain legislation 
at home which might serve to dispel the popular illusion 
that baptism conferred freedom upon slaves. A proposi- 
tion contained in Mr. Forbes' account of the state of the 
church in Virginia, July 21, 1724, is a case in point. It 
stated that the Christian duty of instructing and educating 
heathen slaves in the Christian faith was much neglected by 
slave owners in America, though recommended by his 
majesty's instructions. It was accordingly proposed that 
every Indian, negro or mulatto child that should be bap- 
tized and publicly catechized by the minister in church, and 
who could, before the fourteenth year of his or her age, 
give a distinct account of the creed, the Lord's Prayer and 
the ten commandments, should, if the owner received a 
certificate from the minister to that effect, be exempted 
from paying all levies till the age of eighteen years. 1 

Laws to this effect were passed in some of the colonies. 
The Carolina Fundamental Constitutions of 1669 na d pro- 
vided that it should be lawful for slaves to become members 
of any church or religious profession as if they were free- 
men, but that every owner should have absolute power and 
authority over his slaves regardless of their opinion or 
religion. 2 But by the so-called " Church Act " of 1705 
South Carolina showed itself averse to the policy advo- 
cated in the Constitutions of 1669, and decreed that the 
register of a parish should except negro and Indian slaves 
from the entries of births, christenings, marriages and 
burials. 3 The law suited the times and was accordingly fol- 
lowed. 4 But in 1712, in order to correct the popular mis- 

1 Perry, Historical Co'lections relating to the American Colonial 
Church, i, p. 344; Meade, Old Churches, Ministers and Families of 
Virginia, i, p. 265. 

2 Poore, The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters. 
etc., ii, pp. 1407, 1408. 

s Trott, Laws of the British Plantations in America, etc., p. 17. 
4 Ramage, Local Government and Free Schools in South Carolina, 
p. 12, in Johns Hopkins University Studies, i. 



270 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [522 

conception that a Christianized slave was by law free, an 
act was passed to the effect that baptism of slaves did not 
confer freedom upon them. 1 

As early as 1655, the Virginia assembly had voted 
that Indian servants should be educated and brought 
up in the Christian faith. 2 Yet the idea that bap- 
tism conferred freedom upon a slave even then ex- 
isted in the colony, since one of the reasons given 
for the disallowance of the sale of an Indian boy by "The 
Kinge of Waineoke " to Elizabeth Short in 1659 was 
that the boy was desirous of baptism. 3 The above action 
of the legislature probably contributed to the enactment 
of the law of 1667 which decreed that the baptism of a 
slave did not confer freedom upon him or in any way 
change his condition. The act naively declared the reason 
for this legislative action to be that masters freed from 
this doubt might the more carefully encourage the propa- 
gation of Christianity by permitting the conversion of 
slaves. 4 The act of 1670, when slaves were for the first 
time legally designated as such in Virginia, decreed that 
freedom resulting from Christianity was limited to ser- 
vants imported by shipping. Consequently Indian servants 
or slaves, since they generally came into the colony by 
land, were not eligible to become freemen by the provision. 5 
The act of 1670 was repealed in 1682 and a new act re- 
moved the possibility of conversion to Christianity con- 
ferring freedom upon any slaves, negro, mulatto or Indian, 
by decreeing that whether converted to Christianity before 
or after being brought to the colony, they should remain 

1 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vii, pp. 364-365. 

* Hening, op. cit., i, p. 410. 

3 Williatn and Mary College Quarterly, vi, p. 215; Hening, op. cit., 
ii, P- 155- 

* Hening, op. cit , ii, p. 260. 5 Ibid., ii, p. 283. 



523] TREATMENT 2 7I 

slaves. 1 Finally, in 1712, Virginia passed a law requiring 
that the parents of free-born children and the owners of 
slave-born children, within twenty days after the birth of 
a child, should give notice in writing of the birth, with 
name and sex, the names of the parents of a free-born 
child, and the name of the owner of a slave-born child. 
The death of a slave was to be reported to the minister of 
the parish in the same way, and the minister was required 
to keep a record of all births and deaths in his parish.' 
Virginia parish registers after this date contain records of 
the death of Indian slaves. 3 Maryland, also, by the acts of 
1692, 4 1694, 5 1704 6 and 1715 7 sought to encourage the 
baptism of " negroes and other slaves " by asserting that 
baptism did not confer freedom upon slaves or their off- 
spring. In accordance with the instructions of Queen Anne 
to Governor Cornbury, 1702, New Jersey passed an act in 
May, 1704, declaring that baptism of any negro, Indian or 
mulatto slave should not be considered reason or cause for 
his freedom. 8 

1 Ibid., ii, p. 491. The testimony of the Reverend Hugh Jones, chap- 
bin of the Virginia assembly, shows that the colon sts, even after 
such legislative action, did not approve of the bap izing of Indians and 
negroes as they thought it made them proud and not so good servants. 
Jones, however, declared that these objections could be eas ly re- 
futed " if ;he persons be sensible, good and understand English, and 
have been taught (or are willing to learn) the principles of Christirn- 
ity and if they be kept to the observance of it afterward, for Chris- 
tianizing encourages and orders them to become more humble and be - 
ter servants and not worse than when they were heathen " Jones, 
The Present State of Virg'nia, in Sabin's Reprints, No. 5, p. 70. 

2 Trott, Lazvs of the British Plantations in America, etc., p.. 142. 

8 The parish register of St. Peters, New Ken County, Virginia, 
1680- 1 787, pp. S3 and 64, mentions the deaths of iwo Indian slaves in 
1722 and 1723, but records no births or marriages. 

* Archives of Maryland, xiii, p. 505. 

5 Ibid., xix, p. 32. 6 Paeon, Laws of Maryland. 

7 Ibid. 8 Trott, op. cit., p. 257. 



272 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [524 

The amended " Duke's Laws " published about 1674, de- 
creed that turning Christian should not set at liberty any 
negro or Indian servant in New York who had been bought 
by any person. 1 Evidently the colonists put but little faith 
in this provision, for Governor Dongan reported in 1687 
that they ''take no care of the conversion of their slaves." 2 
The old idea that conversion conferred freedom upon slaves 
prevailed, and was doubtless strengthened by an order of 
the council, October 11, 1687, that Christian Indians and 
children of Christian parents brought from Campeachy and 
Vera Cruz as slaves should be set free, 3 and by a similar 
order in the following year that Spanish Indian slaves pro- 
fessing Christianity were to be released and sent home. 4 
This last order was accompanied by a decree of the council, 
July 30, 1688, that the Spanish Indian slaves of certain per- 
sons be brought before it with a view of liberating them if 
they were able to say the Lord's Prayer. 3 A report of Gov- 
ernor Bellomont, April 27, 1699, also, states that a " Bill 
for facilitating the conversion of negroes and Indians . . . 
would not go down with the assembly ; they having a notion 
that the negroes being converted to Christianity would 
emancipate them from their slavery, and loose them from 
their service." 8 But an act of October 24, 1706. " to en- 
courage the Baptizing of Negro, Indian and Mulatto slaves" 
stated that the baptism of slaves did not confer freedom 
upon them. 7 This partially calmed the fears of the slave 

1 Morgan, Slavery in New York, in Historic Nexv York, i, p. 8. 

* New York Colonial Documents, iii, p. 415. 

* Brodhead, op. cit., first edition, ii. p. 486. This act merely con- 
firmed previous legislation in 1680. 

* Ibid., first edition, ii, p. 509. This confirmed the legislation of the 
previous year. 

5 Ibid., first edition, ii, p. 510. 

6 New York Colonial Documents, iv, p. 510. 

7 Morgan, op. cit., in Historic New York, ii, p. 20; Laws of New 
York, edition of 1752, p. 69. 



525] TREATMENT 273 

owners, and the baptism of slaves became more frequent; 1 
but it did not lead the owners in all cases to favor the work 
of the missionaries among the slaves. In 1724, Mr. Jenney 
reported to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 
in Foreign Parts : " There are a few negroes and Indian 
slaves ... in my parish: the catechist, a school-master 
from the honorable society, has often proposed to teach 
them the catechism, but we cannot prevail upon their masters 
to spare them from their labor for that good work." 2 
Again, in 1728, Mr. Wetmore reported the opposition of 
Quaker, Presbyterian and Episcopalian masters to the in- 
struction and baptism of their slaves, 3 but in 1734 he al- 
luded to the baptism of one adult Indian slave. 4 

In New England the earliest action taken by the colonial 
government with regard to the religious instruction of 
slaves occurred in 1677 ^ n connection with the disposal as 
slaves of the captives taken in King Philip's War, when it 
was decreed that all the Indian slaves distributed among 
the inhabitants of the colony should " be taught and in- 
structed in the Christian religion." 5 How far such relig- 
ious training was carried out would be difficult to ascertain. 
Occasional glimpses of the situation can be obtained. Ex- 
perience Mayhew lamented that all the English did not in- 
struct their servants in the " principles of the true re- 

1 Morgan, op. cit., in Historic New York, ii, p. 20. 

1 Bolton, History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the County 
of Westchester, p. 228. 

* Ibid., p. 250. 

4 Ibid., p. 264. The slaves in New York, as in other colonies, did 
not favor giving up their Sundays to religious instruction and observ- 
ances, for they preferred to hunt and fish on this, the only day which 
they had to themselves. Ibid., pp. 62-63. 

5 Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts 
Bay, v, p. 136. 



274 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [526 

ligion "; * though he cited instances when Indian servants, 
some of whom may have been slaves, were so instructed. 2 
Just how much missionary work was done in the homes of 
Massachusetts or elsewhere for the converison of Indian 
servants and slaves is not known. Indian slaves were 
owned by ministers of the gospel, and it may be supposed 
that some attention was given to their instruction. Evi- 
dently the religious spirit of the Massachusetts colonists 
was sufficiently strong to include Indian slaves and ser- 
vants, for in some churches negroes and Indians had a spe- 
cial location assigned them in the church 3 and occasional 
reference is found to Indian slaves being church mem- 
bers. According to the baptismal records of November 19, 
1727, for example, the Indian slave of Lieutenant Stephen 
Longfellow, great-great-grandfather of the poet, was his 
fellow member in the Byfield church. 4 In this same year 
the Reverend Timothy Cutler reported from Boston : 
"Negro and Indian slaves belonging to my parish are about 
thirty-two, their education is according to the houses they 
belong to. I have baptized but two. But I know of the 
masters of some others who are disposed to this important 
good of their slaves and are preparing them for it; how- 
ever, there is too great a remissness upon this article ". 5 In 
Rhode Island, also, for a long period the slaves were ex- 
cluded from the church because their owners considered 
church membership to be inconsistent with their position. 
Finally in 1721 James MacSparran, pastor of Narragansett, 

1 Mayhew, Indian Converts, p. 194. 

* Ibid., pp. 202, 222, 257. 

s Plymouth Colony Records, ii, pp. 103-104; Medford Historical 
Register, iii, No. 3, p. 121. 

* Ewell, The Story of Byfield, p. 88. 

* Perry, Historical Collections relating to the American Episcopal 
Church, ii, p. 231. 



527] TREATMENT 2 y^ 

protested against denying slaves the benefit of religious in- 
struction and activities, and carried his point. 1 After that 
date Indian and other slaves could belong to the churches, 
though baptism and membership were still held in disfavor 
by the slave owners. 2 Connecticut, too, in 1727, favored 
the work of the church by enacting that masters and mis- 
tresses of Indian children were to use their utmost en- 
deavors to instruct them in the Christian faith. 3 

The popular idea that baptism conferred freedom upon 
slaves aroused eventually so much discussion among both 
the colonists and the representatives of the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and so many 
inquiries were addressed to the home government concern- 
ing the matter, that in 1729 the opinions of Talbot and 
Yorke, the attorney and solicitor generals of England, were 
expressed on the subject. Their decision was in accord 
with the acts of the various colonial legislatures to the 
effect that baptism did not confer freedom upon slaves. 
The declaration of Gibson, Bishop of London, about the 
same time, also, that " Christianity and the embracing of 
the Gospels does not make the least alteration in civil prop- 
erty ", practically ended the discussion. 4 

Turning now to a consideration of the question of manu- 
mission, it may be said that an Indian slave, like a negro 
of like condition, might obtain freedom during the latter's 
lifetime, or by testamentary disposition at the owner's 
death. His freedom might be purchased either by himself 

1 Journal of the American Irish Historical Society, iii, p 57. 
1 Johnston, Slavery in Rhode Island, in Rhode Island Historical So- 
ciety Publications, 1894, ii, p. 120. 

3 Hurd, op. cit., i, p. 272; Steiner, op. cit., p. 16, in Johns Hopkins 
University Studies, xvi. 

4 Cobb, An Historical Sketch of Slavery from the Earliest Periods, 
p. clii. 



276 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [528 

or others. A colonial court might declare him free if it 
were found that he was illegally held or misused. A col- 
onial government, also, might grant him freedom for some 
special service rendered. 

Action of the owner was naturally the most common 
way of conferring freedom. 1 When freedom was be- 
stowed during the owner's lifetime, a deed of manumission 
was usually given in order to avoid future complications. 2 
Occasionally in special instances the colonial government 
recognized such action of the slave owners as legal. For 
instance, the South Carolina Board of Counsel, August 3, 
171 1, in its directions to the Indian traders provided that 
any Indians taken captive in war and declared free by their 
respective masters who had a right so to act, should be 
deemed free men. 3 

Record exists of Indian slaves purchasing their freedom 
from two sources, viz. : the colonial governments that! 

1 Coffin, History of Newbury, p. 336, cites instances in Newbury in 
1687 and 1702. Orcutt, The History of the old Town of Derby, 
Connecticut, p. lvii, mentions a deed of manumission in Connecticut 
in 1688, given to Tobie, an Indian captive of King Philip's War. 
Smith, History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, p. 219, refers to the 
conditional manumission of an Indian slave, three years old, born in 
the family. Cotton Mather, also, promised to free an Indian slave at 
the close of four years of service. Diary, in Massachusetts Histori- 
cal Society Collections, series 7, vii, p. 203. 

8 A Virginia act of 1782 provided for the freeing of a slave by an 
instrument in writing submitted by the owner. A copy of this in- 
strument attested by the clerk of the county court was to be given to 
the manumitted slave. Any master neglecting to give such a copy to 
the slave in question was liable to a fine of £10. Hening, op. cit., 
xi, p. 39. Maryland by an act of 1752 declared that owners under or- 
dinary circumstances had the right to free slaves. Two witnesses were 
required for the act, which must be in writing. Bacon, Laws of 
Maryland. These acts were intended primarily to apply to negro 
slaves. 

* Indian Book, 1710-1718, Columbia, South Carolina, Historical Com- 
mission Department, i, p. 19. 






529] TREATMENT 277 

held them before they were transferred to individual 
owners, and the individual masters themselves. In 
Plymouth, March 5, 1668, it was ordered that a certain In- 
dian held at Boston " for matter of fact ", since there was 
" a probability of a tender of some land for his ransom 
from being sent to Barbadoes ", should be freed from such 
slavery on the tender of the land in question. 1 A similar 
instance occurred in Connecticut. One of the earliest land 
grants of that colony was conveyed to its owner by the In- 
dian chief, Uncas, in 1678, in exchange for Betty, an In- 
dian woman taken captive in King Philip's War. 2 Experi- 
ence Mayhew relates the instance of an Indian slave who, 
after his master's death, purchased his freedom from his 
mistress on easy terms, " his master having never designed 
to keep him a slave all his days ". 3 Another instance, in 
1709, shows an Indian slave woman sold to a free Indian 
to become his wife, in return for certain land. 4 

By South Carolina law, an Indian slave was given a 
chance to prove his right to freedom. According to the 
act of 1 71 2, any negro, mulatto, mustee or Indian slave, 
claiming freedom for certain reasons specified in the act, 
had the right to have his case heard and determined by 
governor and council. 5 The act was repeated in 1722. 6 By 
the terms of the acts of 1735 7 and I740, s any slave might 

1 Plymouth Colony Records, iv, p. 173. By the terms of the order, 
the value of the land was to be expended for defraying the charges of 
printing the book " New England's Memorial." 

2 Baker, History of Montville, Connecticut, p. 77. This woman was 
given by the colonial government to Captain James Avery who sold 
her to Mr. Charles Hill who in turn traded her to Uncas. 

8 Mayhew, Indian Converts, p. 120. 

4 Orcutt, The History of the old Tozvn of Derby, Connecticut, p. vii. 

6 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vii, p. 352. 

6 Ibid., vii, p. 371. 7 Ibid., vii, p. 385. 

8 Ibid., vii, pp. 397-398. 



278 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [530 

apply to the justices of the Court of Common Pleas by peti- 
tion or motion. The court would then appoint a guardian 
for " said negro or Indian, mulatto or mestizo " ; and, after 
hearing evidence, would render decision. The alleged 
owner might defend himself, and if the plaintiff were de- 
clared free, the jury might award damages to the defend- 
ant. If the defendant should win the case, the court might 
inflict such corporal punishment on the plaintiff as it should 
see fit, not extending to danger to life or limb. The burden 
of proof was to lie with the plaintiff, and any such negro, 
Indian, etc., was to be considered a slave until the con- 
trary was proved. Other courts of the province besides the 
one mentioned, were to have similar jurisdiction in the 
matter. 

Certain of the colonies specified how slaves might be 
emancipated. In 1723, Virginia declared that no negro, 
mulatto or Indian slave was to be set free upon any pre- 
tense whatever except for some meritorious service, to be 
adjudged and allowed by the governor and council for the 
time being, and a license therefor first obtained. If any 
slave should be set free by his owner in any other way, it 
was declared lawful for the churchwardens of the parish 
wherein such slave should reside for the space of one 
month following his being freed, to take up and sell the 
said negro, mulatto or Indian as a slave at the next court 
held for the county. 1 North Carolina, similarly, in 1741, 
provided that no slave was to be freed except for meritor- 
ious service, to be adjudged and allowed by license of the 
county court. If any owner should free his slave in any 
other way, the church wardens of the parish wherein such 
" negro, mulatto or Indian " should be found at the expira- 
tion of six months after the manumission, were authorized 

1 Hening, op. cit., iv, p. 132. 



53 1 ] TREATMENT 2 ~g 

and required to sell the said negro, mulatto or Indian as a 
slave at the next session of the county court. 1 

The colonial governments themselves granted freedom 
to Indian slaves on special occasions. By an act passed in 
1660, Virginia provided that an Indian sold by another In- 
dian, or an Indian who spoke the English language and 
who might desire baptism, should be given his or her free- 
dom. 2 In 1675, also, the Massachusetts general court 
freed the sister of an Indian whose friendship it wished to 
assure. The alleged owner of the slave being able to prove 
his title, the court ordered that £5 be paid for the slave's 
liberty. 3 

At the time of King Philip's War the general courts of 
Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth reserved the privilege, not 
only of disposing of captives as slaves, but also of taking 
these slaves away from their owners and giving them their 
liberty if such action seemed advisable. In March, 1679, 
the Massachusetts general court made reparation in money 
to the master of an Indian slave, when for some reason the 
court freed the slave. 4 The Plymouth general court, June 
3, 1679, ordered the release of a certain Indian woman and 
her husband upon the payment by the woman's brothers of 
£6 in New England silver money. 5 The same order pro- 
vided in the case of a " younger Indian " that he should re- 
main with his master until twenty-four years old, and then 
be given his freedom. 6 Like action was taken in 17 14 when 

1 Martin, The Public Acts of the General Assembly of North Caro- 
lina, i, p. 66; Dillon, Oddities in Colonial Legislation, p. 233. 

a Hening, op. cit., ii, p. 155. 

8 Baylies, op. cit., ii, pt. iv, p. 4; Freeman, The History of Cape Cod, 
ii, p. 72. 

* Massachusetts Manuscript Records, vol. xxx. 
5 Plymouth Colony Records, vi, p. 15. 

* II id., vi, p. 15. 



2 8o INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [532 

the owner of an Indian slave petitioned the Massachusetts 
general court for the payment of £25, " the prime cost 
which he paid for an Indian boy lately called out of his 
hands to be returned to the Indians at the time of the late 
pacification, besides charges in keeping and clothing of him 
and for doctors ". x Just prior to Church's expedition in 
King Philip's War, furthermore, as a military measure to 
prevent conspiracy among the Indians in the colony and 
their union with the warring tribes, Massachusetts decreed 
that any Indian servant discovering any dangerous plot or 
conspiracy of Indians should be emancipated, and his mas- 
ter be paid out of the public treasury a reasonable price for 
his services. 2 

Some of the colonies considered it advisable to make 
regulations regarding the Indians after emancipation. A 
Virginia act of 1670 specified that former Indian slaves 
" though baptized and enjoined their own freedom " could 
not purchase Christian white servants. The law did not 
debar them, however, from buying any of their own race. 3 
Both New York by the act of 1712, 4 and New Jersey by the 
act of 1713, 5 decreed that no freed Indian could hold any 
real estate property in the colony concerned. South Caro- 
lina and North Carolina, also, regarded the presence of 
manumitted Indians in the colony as undesirable. The 
possibility that freedmen of this sort might stir up disturb- 
ance among their fellows who remained in slavery was too 
great a risk. A South Carolina act of 1722 decreed that, 
if owners freed any slave, they must make provision for 

1 Acts and Resolves, ix, p. 376. 
1 Baylies, op. cit., ii, pt. iv, p. 109. 
* Hening, op. cit., ii, p. 280. 

4 New York Colonial Laws, edition of 1894, i, p. 764. 
8 Nevill, Acts of the General Assembly of the Province of New 
Jersey, i, p. 23. 



533] TREATMENT 2 8l 

his passage out of the province. Such freedman, if he did 
not leave the province within twelve months after his 
manumission (being at liberty to do so) would lose the 
benefit of his emancipation, and continue to be a slave, un- 
less the manumission were confirmed by both houses of the 
legislature. 1 A further act of 1735 required that the slave 
when manumitted should quit the province within the 
period of six months following his manumission, and 
not return within seven years. 2 The North Carolina act of 
1741 specified that, if any freedman did not depart from 
the province within six months following his manumission, 
or should thereafter return to the province, the church 
wardens of the parish where he might be at the end of one 
month after his return, were to sell him at public auction 
at the next session of the county court. 3 

The freeing of slaves who after their manumission 
might possess no means of support and in consequence 
become a burden upon the community, presented a 
problem that often needed attention. Connecticut under- 
stood the value of freeing worn-out slaves so as to avoid 
supporting them in their time of uselessness; hence in 1702 
the general court enacted that every slave owner who freed 
his slave should in the years following manumission, if the 
former slave came to want, meet the expense which the 
local government encountered in caring for the freedman.* 
The act was renewed by the court in 1703.° Another act 
of practically the same tenor and including " Spanish In- 
dians " was passed in 171 1. 6 An act of 1777, also, relieved 
the former owner of a freedman from any obligation to 

1 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vii, p. 384. 

* Ibid., vii, p. 396. 

* Martin, The Public Acts of the General Assembly of North Caro- 
lina, i, p. 66; Dillon, op. cit., p. 233. 

4 Connecticut Colonial Records, iii, pp. 375-376. 

* Ibid., iii, p. 408. 6 Ibid., v, p. 233. 



282 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [534 

contribute to his support if the act of manumission had 
been sanctioned in due form by the selectmen of the former 
owner's town. 1 

A New York law of 1712, on the other hand, provided 
that any one manumitting " any negro, Indian or mulatto 
slave " should give security of not less than £200 to pay 
yearly to such freed slave the sum of £20 lawful money of 
the colony. If the slave were freed by will and testament, 
the executors of the deceased person were required to give 
the same security after probate. If such security were not 
given, the manumission should be void. 2 Since the law 
proved to be unsatisfactory, in 171 7 it was amended so as 
to provide that any master or other person manumitting 
an Indian or negro slave should give security at the Gen- 
eral Sessions of the Peace for city and county where such 
freed Indian or negro should reside, to keep such freedman 
from becoming a charge on the city, town or place. 3 

New Jersey, too, in 171 3, passed an act declaring that 
no negro or mulatto slave could be manumitted unless the 
slave's master gave surety to pay such freed slave £20 
yearly. 4 This is the only section of the act which did not 
include Indian slaves in its provisions. Evidently the omis- 
sion was unsatisfactory, for a later act, November 16, 
1769, repealed the section and provided that, if any owner 
should by will or otherwise free " any negro, Indian or 
mulatto slave ", then such owner, his heirs or executors, at 
the next session of the Court of General Quarter Sessions 
of the Peace in the county where such owner resided, must 
give a bond of £200, so as to indemnify the community if 
such freedman became a pauper. 5 

1 Connecticut Colonial Records, xvi, p. 415. 

2 New York Colonial Laws, edition of 1894, i, p. 765. 

3 Ibid., i, p. 922. 

4 Nevill, op. cit., i, p. 23. B Allinson, op. cit., p. 316 



CHAPTER XII 
The Decline of Indian Slavery 

The small number of the Indians within the ter- 
ritory actually occupied by the English had its influ- 
ence upon both the extent and the decline of Indian slav- 
ery. The Indians were never as numerous in the English 
territory as in that occupied or claimed by the Spanish and 
French. From many estimates made of the Indian popu- 
lation in the section under English rule, 1 it would seem 
that the supply was sufficient to nourish the system of 
Indian slavery indefinitely ; but it must be noted that the 
greater portion of this Indian population was made up of 
tribes generally remote from the English settlements. 

The consensus of opinion to-day is that the number of 
Indians in New England about the year 1600 was not 
greater than twenty-four or twenty-five thousand. This 
number was so much reduced by the plague of 1616, 2 that 

1 Brain, The Redemption of the Red Man, p. 2, believes that the 
entire Indian population of the territory now occupied by the United 
States never exceeded 300,000 souls. Bancroft, History of the United 
States of America from the Discovery of the Continent, edition of 
1878, ii, p. 408, estimates the number east of the Mississippi River 
and south of the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes at not far from 
180,0000 at the time of the discovery. To the various tribes of the 
Algonquin race he assigns 90,000; the eastern Sioux, 3000; the Iroquois 
including their southern kindred, 17,000; the Catawba, 3,coo; the 
Cherokee, 12,000; the Chickasaw, Choctaw and Muskohgee, 50.000; 
the Uchee, 1000, and the Natchez, 4,000. 

2 Sylvester, op. cit., ii, p. 54. 

535] 28 3 



284 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [536 

Palfrey states that the English found practically a vacant 
domain. 1 In the Florida country many small tribes were 
so thoroughly exterminated before the coming of the whites 
that no trace of their existence remained except a few local 
names. 2 In the interior of the continent before the French 
or the English had obtained a foothold, the whole country 
during the seventeenth century was the seat of intertribal 
wars so disastrous in their results as to destroy many large 
and powerful tribes. 3 

With the coming of the white races the decrease in the 
number of the Indians went on rapidly. Estimates show 
such to have been the case with the Indians of the North 
Atlantic coast during the first quarter of the eighteenth cen- 
tury. 4 Bradford 6 and Winthrop 6 bear witness to the 
small number of the natives, and to the further decrease of 
that number after the coming of the whites. An early 
writer on New York declares: "There is now (1670) but 
few Indians upon the island and those few no ways hurtful. 
It is to be admired how strangely they have decreased by 
the hand of God, since the English first settling in these 
parts." 7 Oldmixon gives the number of Indian men in 
New York in 1708 as one thousand, "whereas there are 
seven or eight times as many English." 8 According to the 

1 Palfrey, op. cit., iii, p. 137. 

' Thomas, The Indians of North America in Historic Times, p. 60. 
s Parkman, A Half Century of Conflict, ii, p. 286. 
* Year Book of the Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts, 1898, p. no. 

5 Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantations, in Massachusetts His- 
torical Society Collections, series 4, iii, p. 325. 

6 Winthrop, Journal, i, pt. iii, p. 119, in Original Narratives of Early 
American History. 

7 Denton, A Brief Description of New York, etc., in Gowan, Biblio- 
theca Americana, p. 7- 

8 Oldmixon, The British Empire in America, etc., i, p. 125. 



5 37] THE DECLINE OF INDIAN SLAVERY 285 

same authority, the number of Indians in New Jersey at the 
opening of the eighteenth century did not exceed two hun- 
dred. 1 

A decreased birth-rate was not the least important cause 
of this decrease in numbers throughout all the tribes. Fol- 
lowing the advent of the whites in the new world, " sterility 
became the rule and not the exception ", where before the 
Indians were very prolific. 2 The natives, bond or free, 
seemed to possess a peculiar susceptibility to the diseases of 
the whites, and a lack of ability to withstand their effects. 
The Indians of the Delaware River country complained 
that during the sixteen years after the coming of the 
Swedes, their number had been much diminished, presum- 
ably by small-pox. 3 In both North and South Carolina, 
the Indians were much afflicted by this same disease in 
early colonial days, one tribe being entirely swept away, 4 
another nearly exhausted, 5 and still others much reduced 
in numbers. 6 Owing to diseases and other causes the sev- 
eral tribes in Carolina at the opening of the eighteenth cen- 
tury were small, most of them not numbering more than 
fifty men each. 7 Douglass recorded that the Spanish In- 
dians captured at St. Augustine and brought to New Eng- 
land, soon died of consumption. 8 

1 Oldmixon, op. cit., i, p. 141. 

* Arnold, History of Rhode Island, i, pp. 421-422. 

1 Ferris, A History of the Original Settlements on the Delaware 
from its Discovery by Hudson to the Colonisation under William 
Penn, etc., p. 83. 

* Archdale, op. cit., in Carroll, op. cit., ii, p. 89. 
5 Ibid., ii, pp. 89, 519. 

* Ibid., ii, p. 89. 

' Letter of Mr. Thomas, missionary of the Society for the Propaga- 
tion of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 1706, in South Carolina Historical 
and Genealogical Magazine, v, p. 42. 

8 Douglass, A Summary, Historical and Political, etc., i, p. 175- 



2 86 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [538 

Dean Berkeley who repeatedly visited Narragansett to 
examine the conditions and character of the Indians of that 
locality, in his sermon before the Society for the Propaga- 
tion of the Gospel in Foreign Parts at its anniversary in 
1 73 1, bears witness to such destruction in the following 
statement : " The native Indians, who are said to have been 
thousands within the compass of this colony, do not at pres- 
ent amount to a thousand, including every age and sect; 
. . . the English [having] contributed more to destroy 
their bodies by the use of strong liquors, than by any means 
to improve their minds or save their souls. This slow 
poison, jointly operating with the small-pox, and their 
wars, (but much more destructive than both), has con- 
sumed the Indians, not only in our colonies, but also far 
and wide upon our confines." 1 

Intestine wars, often, as has been seen, fostered by the 
whites, resulted in great loss of numbers to the Indians, 
and sometimes even destroyed whole tribes. In conse- 
quence of a war between the Yoamaco Indians of Mary- 
land and the Susquehanna, the former disappeared. 2 In 
Virginia, between 1609 and 1669, spirituous liquors, the 
small-pox, war and a diminution of territory reduced the 
tribes to one-third of their original number. 3 During the 
next twenty years they had become so much weakened that 
three of their principal tribes were able to send to a great 
Indian congress only four representatives, including attend- 
ants. By the end of the next century all had perished, ex- 
cept three or four of one tribe, ten or twelve of another, and 
a few women only of a third. 4 

1 Updike, History of the Episcopal Church in Narragansett, Rhode 
Island, p. 177. 

2 Oldmixon, op. cit., i, pp. 187, 189. 

s Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, edition of 1787, p. 153. 
* Ibid., edition of 1787, pp. I54> *55- 



239] THE DECLINE OF INDIAN SLAVERY 287 

By 1780 all the Indian nations of the territory settled 
by the English in the south were either extinct or had re- 
treated westward and had united with the neighboring 
Cherokee and Creeks. At this time the Catawba were so 
reduced that they possessed but seventy or eighty men. 1 
The Westo and Savannah were likewise reduced from 
many thousands to small numbers, 2 and the Corannine tribe 
was practically destroyed. 3 

Another cause which contributed in a measure to the 
passing of Indian slavery was the amalgamation of the 
red and black slaves. Since intercourse and marriage of 
slaves were not generally interfered with by the whites, it 
was natural that the slaves of the red and black races should 
intermingle. Since, also, the Indians were generally in the 
minority, as well as inferior in power of resistance, their 
physical characteristics gradually disappeared, while those 
of the negro remained. 

By his very constitution, furthermore, the Indian seemed 
unfitted for servitude. He was highly susceptible to cli- 
matic changes, and unable to endure sustained labor. In 
his native condition he was accustomed at times to 
great tests of physical endurance, which, however, alter- 
nated with periods of rest and recuperation. Though au- 
thorities may differ as to the capacity of the Indian for 
civilization, the fact remains that civilization has only to a 
very small extent been assimilated by the red man. Taking 
into due consideration the treatment accorded him by the 
whites, the conclusion seems warranted that such lack of as- 

1 Letter of Samuel Thomas, missionary in South Carolina of the 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 1706, 
in South Carolina Historical and Genea'og'cal Magazine, 1904, v, p. 42; 
Letter of Henry Laurens, 1780, in Moore, Materials for History printed 
from Original Manuscripts with Notes and Illustrations, p. 187. 

J Archdale, op. cit., in Carroll, op. cit., ii, pp. 88-89. 

* Ibid., ii, p. 89. 



2 88 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [540 

similation is due in some measure to the inability of the In- 
dian to develop beyond the stage which he had already 
reached when discovered by the Europeans. Furthermore, 
the dominant idea of Indian life was the love of liberty. 
Heredity and environment cooperated to make the Indian a 
creature opposed to all restraint when exercised by an ex- 
terior force. 1 

The general conclusion, therefore, so far as it can be de- 
termined by individual testimony, colonial legislative action 
and the comparative values of Indian and negro slaves, is 
that Indian slave labor within the territory under discus- 
sion was not, as a rule, satisfactory. Mason records that 
the captives distributed among the colonists as slaves at 
the close of the Pequot War " could not endure that yoke ; 
few of them continuing any considerable time with their 
masters ". 2 Mayhew tells in 1690 of the tendency to run 
away shown by the Indian slaves of Massachusetts. 3 Moses 
Marcy of Oxford, Massachusetts, had an Indian woman 
sold him by the general court prior to 1747. In that year 
he was discharged from his bond, she having " made way 
with herself after having tried to murder her mistress . . . 
run off and not heard from since ". 4 It is stated that the 
Indian female slaves of New England could not be taught 
to sew, to wash clothes, or to render any valuable domestic 
service; 5 and that the Indian slaves of Rhode Island "only 

1 It is perhaps true that the Indians of the territory occupied by the 
English colonists of America possessed certain inherent characteristics 
which made them less desirable as servants or slaves than those used 
by the Spaniards in Mexico and South America, and that they had 
less fear and dread of the whites than the Indians farther south. 

1 Mason, A Brief History of the Pequot War, etc., in Orr, op. cit.. 
P. 39- 

8 Mayhew, Indian Converts, p. 26. 

4 Daniels, History of the Town of Oxford, Massachusetts, p. 44. 

5 Dorr, The Narragansetts, in Rhode Island Historical Society Col- 
lections, vii, p. 210; Wood, Nezv England's Prospect, Prince Society 
edition, p. 73. 



54 I ] THE DECLINE OF INDIAN SLAVERY 2 g 9 

became efficient workmen under a stern and vigorous dis- 
cipline "- 1 Sir Robert Mountgomry, who advocated in 
171 7 the establishment of a colony south of Carolina, urged 
the use of indentured white servants, so that there might 
be " no necessity to use the dangerous help of Blackamoors 
or Indians ". 2 

The various laws, already discussed in another connec- 
tion, and the numerous newspaper advertisements show In- 
dian slaves to have been as much given to running away as 
their negro companions. In fact it seems not unlikely that 
they were more inclined toward trying to escape, for the 
possible chance of returning to their own people offered 
greater inducements for such an act than in the case of 
negroes. 

Indian slaves as well as negroes were implicated in the 
various slave disturbances which occurred from time to 
time in the different colonies. Though there seems no evi- 
dence that Indians were usually more instrumental than 
negroes in creating these disturbances, yet their not infre- 
quent participation in such events tended to lower the colo- 
nists' estimate of their value, and led to definite legislation 
seeking, by preventive measures and by decreeing severe 
punishments in case of conspiracies or uprisings, to avoid 
the danger which the colonists feared. 

Legislation regarding slave conspiracies and uprisings 
was general throughout the English colonies from an early 
date. In some of these acts Indian slaves were expressly 
mentioned. In others they were included by implication in 
the general term " slaves " or in the expression " negroes 

1 Dorr, op. cit., in Rhode Island Historical Society Collections, vii, 
P. 233. 

1 Force, Tracts and other Papers relating principally to the Origin, 
Settlement and Progress of the Colonies in North America, etc., i, 
p. 10. 



290 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [542 

and other slaves ". Reference will be made to only those 
acts which include Indian slaves by express mention. A 
South Carolina act of 1690 related to Indian and negro 
slaves striking a white person. 1 The Spanish Indians were 
evidently considered especially undesirable, for an act 
passed in 1722 stated that " the importation of Spanish 
Indians, mustees, negroes and mulattoes may be of danger- 
ous consequence. . ." 2 In 1703, Massachusetts passed "an 
act to prevent disorder in the night ". The preamble reads : 
" whereas great disorders, insolences and burglaries are 
oftimes raised and committed in the night time by Indian, 
negro and mulatto servants and slaves. . . ." 3 As late as 
1769 Connecticut passed an act relating to any disturbance 
created by " any Indian, negro, or mulatto slave." 4 The 
murder by an Indian man slave and a negro woman of an 
entire white family in Queens County, New York, led to 
the passage of an act, October 30, 1708, to prevent the con- 
spiracy of Indian and negro slaves. 5 A Philadelphia ordi- 
ance, also, of July 3, 1738, dealt with "the tumultuous 
meetings and other disorderly doings of the negroes, mu- 
lattoes and Indian servants and slaves within the city ". 6 

A second class of colonial laws related to Indian slaves 
alone and show that in certain of the colonies the inhabi- 

1 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vii, p. 343. Other acts 
were passed by South Carolina in 1712, 1735, 1740, 1743, and 1783, 
relating to slave conspiracies and uprisings. The omission in these 
acts of direct reference to Indian slaves is probably due to the fact 
that negro slaves were in the majority. 

1 Ibid., ill, p. 196. 3 Acts and Resolves, i, p. 535. 

4 Acts and Laws of Connecticut, eduion of 1769, p. 185; Dillon, 
Oddities in Colonial Legislation, p. 242. 

5 New York Co'onial Laws, edition of 1894, i> P- 631. New York 
passed other laws in 1712 and 1730 relating to the uprisings and con- 
spiracy of slaves. 

8 Watson, Annals of Philadelphia, i, p. 62. 



543] THE DECLINE 0F INDIAN SLAVERY 2 g\ 

tants, for definite reasons, feared the presence of too many 
Indian slaves among them. Such were the laws passed by 
the northern colonies at the time of the Tuscarora War, by 
which they sought by means of heavy duties to prevent the 
importation of such dangerous slaves. 1 The preamble of 
the Massachusetts act of 1713, for example, reads: 
" Whereas divers conspiracies, outrages, barbarities, mur- 
ders, burglaries, thefts and other notorious crimes and 
enormities, at sundry times, and especially of late, have been 
perpetuated and committed by Indian and other slaves 
within several of her majestie's plantations in America, 
being of a malicious, surley and revengeful spirit, rude and 
insolent in their behaviour, and very ungovernable, 
the over-great number and increase whereof within this 
province is likely to prove of pernicious and fatal con- 
sequences to her majestie's subjects and interest here 
unless speedily remedied, and is a discouragement to 
the importation of white Christian servants, this prov- 
ince being differently circumstanced from the planta- 
tions in the islands, and having great numbers of the 
Indian natives of the country within and about them, 
and at this time under the sorrowful effects of their re- 
bellion and hostilities. . . ." 2 The Connecticut act passed 
in August, 171 5, likewise for the purpose of checking the 
importation of Indians into the colony, is a transcript of the 
Massachusetts act and shows that the colonists considered 
a large Indian slave element in the population to be quite 
as undesirable as did the people of Massachusetts. 3 The 
New Hampshire act of 1714 cited as a reason for checking 
the importation of Indians : " the over-great number and 
increase of such slaves within the province is likely to prove 

1 See above, pp. 233-240. 2 Acts and Resolves, i. p. 698. 

5 Connecticut Colonial Records, v, p. 233. 



292 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [544 

of fatal and pernicious consequences to her majesty's sub- 
jects and interests here unless speedily remedied ".* The 
Rhode Island act of July 5, 1715, similarly was passed to 
prevent the importation of Indian slaves, because " divers 
conspiracies, insurrections, rapes, thefts, and other ex- 
ecrable crimes have been lately perpetrated in this and the 
adjoining colonies by Indian slaves, etc." 2 

Again, it seems not unlikely that the use of hired Indian 
servants may have had something to do with the passing of 
Indian slavery, though the influence was probably slight. 
Very early in the history of the northern colonies, Indians 
were employed for wages. The need for laborers could 
thus be partly met at very little cost. A Frenchman resid- 
ing in Boston in 1687, records the wages of such servants 
who worked in the fields as " a shilling and a half a day and 
board which is eighteen pence ". 3 

The number of such Indians employed was generally 
small. As a hired laborer the Indian was no more re- 
liable or trustworthy than as a slave. The keeping of 
Indians in the colonists' families was always considered to 
be more or less dangerous. Massachusetts, in 163 1, 4 and 
Virginia, in i66i, s required that all persons should get 
special licenses before employing Indians. In 1634, 
Winthrop and his son did so. Winthrop himself 
speaks of the " Indians which are in our families ", 6 and 

1 Laws of New Hampshire, edition of 1771, p. 53. 

* Records of Rhode Is'and and Providence Plantations, iv, pp. 193-194. 
3 Report of a French Protestant Refugee in Boston, 1687, Fisher's 

translation, p. 20. 

* Winsor, The Memorial History of Boston, i, p. 489. 

6 Hening, op cit., ii, p. 143. For a petition, October 25, 171 1, to 
Governor Spotswood for such a permit to employ an Indian man and 
woman, see Calendar of Virginia State Papers, i, p. 150. 

6 Winthrop, Journal, i, p. 260, in Original Narratives of Early Ameri- 
can History. 



545] THE DECLINE OF INDIAN SLAVERY 2 Q^ 

mention of his Indian servant is found in other connec- 
tions. 1 As the colony grew stronger and the fear of the 
Indians passed away, other leading men of Massachusetts, 
such as Thomas Morton, 2 the Reverend Mr. Pariss, 3 Isaac 
Addington, secretary of the Council of Safety in 1714, 4 
and John Eliot s employed such servants. The law was re- 
pealed in 1646, " there being more use of encouragement 
thereto than otherwise." 6 That a similar employment of 
Indians existed in Plymouth is seen by the act of 1651 
which shows the danger to the colony in providing such ser- 
vants with firearms. 7 The Praying Indians hired them- 
selves to the whites. 8 The New England whale fisheries 
employed hired Indians, at least from 1670 to 1680. 9 Dur- 
ing the publication of the New Testament in Massachusetts 
in 1 66 1, and the translation of the New and Old Testa- 
ments and the Psalms into the Indian language by John 
Eliot in 1663, Green, the printer, was assisted in his work 
by an Indian apprentice. 10 In Little Compton, Massachu- 
setts, hired Indians were largely engaged in building stone 
fences. 11 In 1659 and 1660, the people of Connecticut were 

1 Hazard, Historical Collections, etc., ii, p. 188. 

2 Morton, The New English Canaan, in Force's Tracts, ii, p. 48. 
s Peabody, Life of Cotton Mather, p. 223. 

4 Sewall's Diary, in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 
series 5, vii, p. 30. 
6 Drake, The Book of the Indians, ninlh edition, ii, p. ill. 
6 Winsor, The Memorial History of Boston, i, p. 489. 
''Plymouth Colony Records, xi, p. 59. 

8 Gookin, op. cit., in American Antiquarian Society Collections, 1836, 
»■ P. 434- 

9 Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, i, p. 433, 
435, 443, 447. 

10 Professional and Industrial History of Suffolk County, Massa- 
chusetts, iii, p. 398. 

11 Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, first series, ix, p. 201. 
We are told that only by being " flagellated " were these Indians made 
to perform their labor according to their contracts. 



294 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [546 

employing the Mohegan Indians in agricultural labor, 1 and 
the use of hired Indians is reported in the colony in 1774. 2 
By 1 73 1 most of the Indians remaining in Narragansett 
were servants in families. 3 The records also of South- 
ampton, New York, show the employment of Indians for 
hire. 4 

It was a part of the Puritan missionary scheme to win 
the heathen to Christianity by employing them in their 
homes where they might be brought into contact with the 
workings of the Christian religion. In this manner they 
hoped to bring the savages to a state preparatory to con- 
version. 5 Something of the same purpose was intended by 
the early Virginia colonists. Hence, in 1619, their first legis- 
lative assembly ordered that every plantation should pro- 
cure Indian youths by just means for this purpose. 6 In 
1774, the governor of Connecticut, in reply to various in- 
quiries made by the home government regarding conditions 
in the colony, stated that there were then 1,363 Indians in 
the colony, and that many of them dwelt in English fami- 
lies. 7 A similar statement was made in 1731 by Dean 
Berkeley to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 
in Foreign Parts. He declared that nearly all the native 
Indians of Rhode Island were at that time servants or 
laborers for the English. 8 

1 Steiner, History of the Plantation of Menunkatuck, p. 72. 
* Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, series 1, ix, p. 78. 
8 Updike, History of the Episcopal Church in Narragansett, etc., 
p. 177. 

4 Records of the Town of Southampton, Long Island, bk. ii, pp. 
56-59, 72. 

5 Love, Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England. 
p. 5; New England's First Fruits, in Sabin's Reprints, quarto edition, 
No. vii, p. 6. 

6 Bruce, Institutional History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Cen- 
tury, i, p. 5. 

T Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, series 1, ix, p. 78. 

8 Updike, op. cit., p. 177. 



547] THE DECLINE OF INDIAN SLAVERY 295 

Some of the earliest of the indentured servants used in 
America, moreover, were Indians. Reference has already 
been made to the Massachusetts law of 1700 seeking to 
avoid the abuse of the custom. In 1674, Plymouth passed 
a law providing that both Indians who lived idly and those 
who did not pay their debts on conviction could be handed 
over to those to whom they were indebted or to others as 
bond servants. 1 The Southold town records mention In- 
dian apprentices in 1678. 2 Indentured male and female 
Indians existed in Salem in 1685. 3 Similar records of In- 
dian apprentices and indentured servants exist for Rhode 
Island, 4 Connecticut, 5 New Jersey 6 and New York. 7 As a 
rule these bond servants were young, for they were then 
more easily trained and were more tractable and useful. 
In Virginia, in every agreement between Indian parents and 
whites, a covenant had to be entered into providing that the 
child be instructed in the Christian religion. 8 

One of the most important causes for the passing of In- 
dian slavery is found in the introduction of indentured 
white servants. Almost from the time of the earliest 
settlements these servants were an institution in the 
English colonies. Some of them were persons who entered 
voluntarily into temporary bond service to pay for passage 
to the new world. 9 Some were prisoners of war. 10 Others 

1 Plymouth Colony Records, xi, p. 237. 

* Southold Town Records, p. 154. a Weeden, op. cit., i, p. 292. 

4 The inventory of the estate of Samuel Gorton of Providence shows 
that he possessed apprenticed Indian servants. The Early Records of 
the Town of Providence, xvi, pp. 243, 244 

4 Walker, History of the First Church in Hartford, p. 255. 

6 New Jersey Archives, series 1, xx, p. Hi; xxvi, p. 458. 

7 Baird, History of Rye, p. 192. 8 Hening. op. cit., i, p. 410. 

9 The so called " redemptioners." 

10 Several hundred Scotchmen taken prisoners by Cromwell were 
sent to Boston. Morton, New England's Memorial, p. 86. 



296 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [ 54 g 

were convicts sent into exile for punishment. 1 These white 
servants were so much desired by the colonists that requests 
were not infrequently sent to England for them. 2 To en- 
courage their voluntary coming, the colonial authorities 
sometimes offered them special inducemnts. 3 

The number of such servants in the different colonies 
varied according to conditions in America and England. 
Naturally their number was greatest where their work 
was most needed. 4 Whatever their condition before 
coming to America and whatever the reason for their com- 
ing, 5 their productivity of labor, native intelligence and 

1 In New Netherland many girls from the almshouses of Holland 
served as indentured servants. Van Rensselaer, History of the City 
of New York in the Seventeenth Century, i, p. 466. 

* Such a request was sent to the Virginia Company in 1620. Ab- 
stracts of the Proceedings of the Virginia Company of London, i, 
p. 92. 

8 Penn offered on certain conditions fifty acres of land to every 
servant who came with the first adven urers, and made adequate pro- 
visions in the Charter of Laws for the servants' protection against 
being cheated or abused in any way by dishonest masters. For a dis- 
cussion of indentured servants in Pennsylvania, see Bolles, Pennsyl- 
vania, Province and State, ii, pp. 173-182; Diffenderffer, German Immi- 
gration into Pennsylvania, pt iii ; Pennsylvania Magazine of History, 
xxx, p. 436; xxxi, p. 83; Historical Addresses and Papers of Lancaster 
Historical Society, x, p. 331 ; Pennsylvania Colonial Records, i, iii, iv, 
vi, vii, ix, x, xi. In 1676, the Duke of York provided for the gov- 
ernment, protection, and final dismissal of bond servants in Delaware. 
Pennsylvania German Society Proceedings, x, pp. 223-224. 

4 In 1671, Governor Berkeley estimated that 1500 white servants were 
arriving annually, and at that time out of a total population of 40,000, 
six thousand were indentured servants. Tucker, Life of Jefferson, 
i, p. 14; Hening, op. cit., ii, p. 515. In the time of Governor Hamilton 
of Pennsylvania, it was estimated that there were 60.000 imported 
white servants in the province. Scharf and Westcott, History of 
Philadelphia, i, p. 190. The German immigrants more than met the 
demand for servants in Pennsylvania. Virginia, Maryland and Penn- 
sylvania were the three great servant importing colonies. 

5 For Connecticut, see Steiner, History of Slavery in Connecticut, 



549] THE DE CLINE OF INDIAN SLAVERY 2 gy 

acquaintance with the customs and observances of civiliza- 
tion made them more desirable than Indian servants. There 
were forces, also, urging them to go to America, and 
forces in America drawing them there. So, until the de- 
velopment of the traffic in negroes, and their consequent 
greater use, the indentured white servants were for a while 
perhaps the leading factor in the decline of Indian slavery. 
Another element that contributed greatly to the decline 
of Indian slavery was that furnished by negro slaves. The 
rapidly increasing number of negroes in each individual 
colony attested both the energy of trading companies and 
the desire of the colonies for the negro type of slave labor. 
Both indentured white servants and negro slaves, in lact, 
far outnumbered the Indian slaves. The sources from 
which the white servants and the negro slaves were drawn 
were well nigh inexhaustible, whereas the sources of Indian 
slavery were limited. From these limited sources, also, 
the colonists drew but in a small degree. White servants 
and negro slaves were obtained by peaceful means, but the 
acquisition of Indian slaves not infrequently meant danger 
to the colony. Behind the indentured white servants and 
the negroes there were powerful forces supplying them to 
the colonists in some cases even faster than they needed 
them. Both indentured white servants and negroes proved 

in Johns Hopkins University Studies, xi ; for New Hampshire, Sanborn, 
New Hampshire; for New Jersey, Nezu Jersey Archives, series 2, i, 
p. 436 ; for Maryland, McCormac, White Servitude in Maryland, 
1634-1820, in Johns Hopkins University Studies, xxii ; for Virginia, 
Ballagh, White Servitude in the Colony of Virginia, in Johns 
Hopkins University Studies, xiii ; for North Carolina, Bassett, Slavery 
and Servitude in North Carolina, in Johns Hopkins University Studies, 
xiv; for South Carolina, McCrady, Slavery in the Province of South 
Carolina, 1670-1770, in Annual Report of the American Historical 
Association for 1895, and Schaper, Sectionalism in South Carolina; 
for Georgia. Colonial Records of Georgia, i, pp. 54. 259. 



298 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [550 

more easily fitted to the life and work required of them 
by their masters, their labor was more productive and they 
were more easily controlled. 

Some idea of the relative values attached to Indian and 
negro slaves may be obtained by a comparison of the prices 
for which they were sold. In Massachusetts, for instance, 
record exists of the sale of an Indian man slave in New- 
bury, in 1649, f° r " tne quarter part of a vessel ".* Sewall 
records that on July 1, 1676, nine Indians were sold for 
£2,o. 2 An inventory of 1690, on the other hand, appraised 
a single negro at £30. 3 In the inventory of an estate in 
Ipswich, in 1683, " Lawrence ye Indian " was valued at 
£4.* In the same town £5 was paid for an Indian boy and 
girl." The Reverend Mr. Thacher of Milton, in 1674, paid 
£5 down and £5 more at the end of the year for an Indian 
woman slave. 6 An Indian girl brought £15 at Salem in 
1710; 7 whereas in the case of a cargo of negroes brought 
into Boston in 1727, as high as £80 was paid per head. 8 
In the settlement of an estate in Newbury, an Indian slave 
was valued at an early date at £20. ' J In 1708, a South 
Carolina Indian boy was sold for £35. 10 In 1713, a Span- 

1 Weeclen, op. cit., i, p. 153; Coffin, A Sketcli of tlie History of 
Newbury, etc., p. 337. 

3 Sewall's Diary, in Massachusetts Historiral Society Collections. 
series 5, v, p. 14. 

3 Moore, Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts, p. 65. 

* Publications of the Ipswich Historical Society, x, p. 29; Waters, 
Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, p. 217. 

5 Bodge, Soldiers in King Philip's War, p. 480; Waters, op. cit., p. 217. 

6 Earle, Customs and Fashions in Old Nezv England, p. 84. 

7 Essex Institute Historical Collections, i. p. 14. 

8 Felt, Annals of Salon, second edition, ii, p. 416. 

9 Currier, History of Newbury, p. 254; Coffin, op. cit., p. 188. 

10 Coffin, op. cit., p. 336. 



55 1 ] THE DECLINE OF INDIAN SLAVERY 299 

ish Indian boy was sold in the same town for £38/ In 
1725, a negro was sold in Newbury for £100, and three 
other negroes were valued at £132 6s. 8d. in colonial cur- 
rency. 2 In 1708, an Indian was sold at Salem for £32. 3 
An Indian girl was sold in the same town in 17 10 for £15.* 
A negro was appraised in the same town at £40. r> In 176;, 
a negro woman was sold for £8 13s. 4d. 6 In Byfield a 
negro was listed in the inventory of an estate in 1689 at 
£60. 7 A negro given to Cotton Mather in 1706 was pur- 
chased at an expense of £40 or £50." An Indian boy was 
valued in Boston in 1721 at £20, and an Indian girl at £io. 9 
In Rhode Island the prices of Indian slaves were lower 
than those already mentioned, for here the Indians were 
sold into slavery for limited periods only. The average price 
at which Indians " great and small " were sold in the col- 
ony, was about thirty-two shillings. Some of the lot 
brought into Rhode Island at the close of King Philip's 
War sold for twelve bushels of Indian corn, some for £2 
10s. in silver, some for 100 pounds of wool, one for three 
fat sheep, two for twenty-two bushels of Indian corn. 10 
One sold in 1677 at Portsmouth for £4 10s. 11 Indian slaves 
appear among other effects in the probate inventories. 

I Coffin, op. cit., p. 336. 

* Currier, op. cit., p. 255. 

3 Essex Institute Historical Collections, x. p. 79. 

* Ibid., i, p. 14. s ibid., x, p. 79. 

* Ibid., xxxiv, p. 64. 

7 Ewell, The Story of Byfield, p. 65. 

8 Mather's Diary in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 
series 7, vii, p. 579. 

9 Bliss, Side Glimpses from the Old Meeting House, p. 16. 

10 Staples, Annals of Providence, second edition, p. 171 ; Rhode Island 
Historical Society Publications, i, p. 235; Richman, op. cit., ii. p. 192. 

II The Early Records of the Town of Portsmouth, p. 433. 



300 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [553 

They were appraised at £8 and £10 each, while negroes 
were valued at from £60 to £80/ with an average price of 
£50 for an able negro man and £40 for a woman. 2 That 
is, a negro laborer was reckoned as the equivalent of five 
or six Indians. 3 In 17 18, three Indian children were worth 
£23. 4 An inventory in 1723 valued the two years and ten 
months' service of an Indian girl at £5- 5 

The inventory of the estate of Gabriel Harris who died 
in 1684 in New London, Connecticut, contained the item: 
" An Indian maid servant, valued at £i5- 6 An Indian slave 
of Wethersfield was appraised in 1662 at £24. A negress 
and child belonging to the same estate were at the same 
time appraised at £22/ In Derby, Connecticut, an Indian 
woman, twenty-six years old, sold in 1722 for £6o. 8 

The inventory of a New Jersey estate, in 1714, included 
an Indian man valued at £11 5s. 9 In another inventory, 
in 1725, an Indian woman was valued at £30. 10 In 171 1, 
an Indian woman and two children were valued at £ioo. lx 
Similar inventories valued an Indian girl in 1696 at £30; 12 

I Dorr, The Narragansetts, in Rhode Island Historical Society Col- 
lections, vii, p. 233. 

* Weeden, Early Rhode Island, p. 143. 

8 Dorr, op. cit., in Rhode Island Historical Society Collections, vii, 
P. 233. 

* Weeden, op. cit , p. 144. 

6 The Early Records of the Town of Providence, xvi, p. 244. 

6 It should be noted that the Connecticut bondmen or slaves were 
often called " servants " down to about 1700. Adams and Stiles, His- 
tory of Ancient Wethersfield, i, p. 700; Caulkins, History of New 
London, p. 271; Charleston Year Book, 1900, p. 42. (Appendix.) 

7 Adams and Stiles, op. cit., i, p. 700. 
s Orcutt, op. cit., p. lvii. 

9 New Jersey Archives, series 1, xxiii, p. 20. 

10 Ibid., series 1, xxiii, p. 29. 

II Ibid., series 1, xxiii, p. 37. 

11 Ibid., series 1, xxiii, p. 62. 



553] THE DECLINE OF INDIAN SLAVERY ^ OI 

an Indian woman in 1724 at £30; x an Indian boy in T711 
at £40 ; 2 . . . two Indian slaves in 1726 at £80; and two 
Indian slaves in 1730 at £50. 3 

The account book of the executor of Thomas Smallcomb 
of York County, Virginia, 1646, contains the following 
items : 4 "By two Indians sold by Sir William Berkeley, 
600 lbs. By two Indians sold by Sir John Hammon, 500 lbs. 
By two Indians sold by Captain Thomas Petters, 600 lbs." 
In the records of Surrey County, 1659, occurs the follow- 
ing deed : " Know all men by these presents, that I, King 
of Waineoakes, do firmly bargaine and make sale unto 
Eliz. Short, her heires, executors or Assignes a boy of my 
nacon, named Weetoppen, from the day and date herself 
untill the full terme of his life, in consideracon whereof I, 
the said Elizabeth Short, doth for myself, my heires, ex- 
ecutors or Assignes ingage to deliver and make sale unto 
the above said kinge a younge horse foale, aged one yeare, 
in full satisfacon for above said boy to enjoy for her 
pper use forever. In witness thereof, wee ye above speci- 
fied, have set our hands ". 5 

The inventory of a North Carolina estate in 1693 valued 
a negro and his wife at £40, an Indian woman and her child 
at £15, and an Indian boy at £12. 6 A bill of sale, March 

1 New Jersey Archives, series i, xxiii, p. 65. 
* Ibid., series I, xxiii, p. 67. 

3 Ibid., series 1, xxiii, 472. In these New Jersey inventories, the 
Indian slaves were regarded as personal estate. 

4 William and Mary College Quarterly, vi, p. 214. The "lbs" refer 
to tobacco, the medium of purchase in early Virginia. 

5 William and Mary College Quarterly, vi, p. 214. This is the deed 
which has already been referred to as having been set aside by the 
House of Burgesses. Hening, op. cit., ii, p. 155- Cf. above, p. 270. 

6 Hawks, History of North Carolina, ii, p. 577- 



3<D2 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [554 

5, 171 1, shows an Indian between twenty and thirty-five 
years of age sold for £i4. 1 In 1713, the council of North 
Carolina decreed that " King Blount " might have eight 
Indians to ship to the West Indies at £10 per head. 2 The 
average price for the Indian captives taken in the Tusca- 
rora War and sold as slaves to the islands and the northern 
colonies appears to have been about £10 each. 3 

A South Carolina law of 1719 states that an Indian slave 
was of much less value than a negro. 4 The English of 
South Carolina, according to the French, were accustomed 
to pay (1714) the Indians fifteen pistoles for an Indian 
slave, while the French were able to purchase them for 115 
livres. 5 The English sold these slaves ordinarily for 300 
or 400 livres. 6 

A comparison of these prices paid for Indian slaves 
shows much variation at different times and places. In 
New England after the Indian wars the prices were low, 
for the chief object of the government was to get rid of the 
captives. In localities where the Indian's labor was in 
greater demand the prices rose and appear to have been 
highest among the English of the southern colonies. When 
compared with sums paid for negroes at the same time and 
place, the prices of Indian slaves are found to have been 
considerably lower. In general the prices of slaves in- 
creased during the years preceding the Revolution, but the 
values of Indian slaves did not equal those of negro slaves. 

1 North Carolina Historical and Genealogical Register, iii, p. 270. 
' Williamson, History of North Carolina, i, p. 289. 
3 North Carolina Colonial Records, ii, p. 52. 
* The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, iii, p. 77. 
6 Mississippi Provincial Archives. French Domination, Correspond- 
ance Generate, v, 1710-1715. 

6 Report on Canadian Archives, 1905, i, p. 523; Margry, op. cit., 
iv, p. 544. 



555] THE DECLINE OF INDIAN SLAVERY 303 

During the existence of Indian slavery, furthermore, 
there was never any general expression of opinion regard- 
ing it either in England 1 or America, nor are there many 
records of opinions expressed during the colonial period as 
to the right or wrong of enslaving the natives. The Eng- 
lish colonists followed the Spanish custom of reducing the 
Indians to a condition of slavery, but neither the English 
colonists nor the English government heeded the example 
of the later policy of the Spanish government in looking 
upon Indian slavery as unjust and declaring it illegal. 

That personal opinions favorable or unfavorable to the 
enslavement of Indians were not more generally expressed 
is not altogether strange. The enslavement was not pre- 
meditated nor did it spring into sudden existence through- 
out the English colonies, but began here and there in var- 
ious colonies at various times and for various reasons. 
The custom of enslavement came from the necessity of dis- 
posing of war captives, from the greed of traders and from 
the demand for labor. Individuals in the colonies, such as 
officials of high rank and church leaders, who would natur- 
ally be expected to express an opinion either for or against 
the custom, themselves held Indian slaves quite as a matter 
of course, and found no necessity for discussing their 
action. Nor did the possession and employment of Indian 
slaves ever become sufficiently extensive to present any of 
the problems which later attracted the attention of the peo- 

1 It is doubtful whether any definite knowledge of the enslavement 
of Indians existed in England. The public cri icism of the play and 
opera " Incle and Yarico," wh'ch dealt with the capture of two Indian 
girls in America and their subsequent sale in Barbadoes, because the 
first scene was laid in America, tends to show a general ignorance on 
the subject. This play written by Coleman and told in story by Steele 
in "The Spectator," No 11, March 13. 1710, is supposed to have been 
founded on fact. The event is described in L : gon, History of Bar- 
badoes, p. 55. The play is given in Inchbald. British Theatre. 



304 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [556 

pie and led to the opposition which overthrew negro slavery 
in several of the colonies, and incidentally, Indian slavery 
as well. 

Yet throughout the history of Indian slavery certain ex- 
pressions of opposition to the system, usually mild in nature, 
occurred from time to time. In the English colonies there 
was never any such earnest opponent to Indian slavery as 
the Spaniard, Las Casas, who argued directly against the 
enslavement of Indians from the standpoint of the injus- 
tice of reducing the natives to such a condition. Most of 
the opposition expressed in the English colonies was aimed 
at some specific instance of harsh treatment or cruel pun- 
ishment of which enslavement was an incident ; or it arose 
during the later colonial period as a part of the antagonism 
to slavery in general ; or, as was the case in South Carolina, 
it revealed the attitude of one faction of the government 
toward the actions of another faction, and was not at all 
concerned in abolishing the practice of enslaving Indians 
as such. 

The system adopted by Rhode Island at the time of King 
Philip's War of using the captive Indians as involuntary 
indentured servants for short periods of years, was antici- 
pated by the query expressed by Roger Williams in his 
letter to Governor Winthrop, September 18, 1637, as to 
whether the captive Indians whose lives were spared should 
not be retained in involuntary servitude for short periods of 
time and then be released. 1 This spirit of opposition to the 
enslavement of Indian captives for life, shown by Rhode 
Island during both the Pequot and King Philip wars, was 
somewhat out of harmony with the spirit of the times. But 
it should be noted that this opposition was not the expres- 
sion of the entire colony. During the Pequot War it repre- 
sented the feeling of the " Liberal Party " against the en- 

1 Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, series 4, vi, p. 214. 



557] THE DECLINE OF INDIAN SLAVERY 305 

slavement of the captive Indians, and during King Philip's 
War it resulted from the dominating influence of the 
Quaker element in the government. 

The opposition of John Eliot to the enslavement of In- 
dians during King Philip's War was similar to that shown 
by Roger Williams during the Pequot War, though per- 
haps it was prompted by a more nearly unselfish and hu- 
manitarian motive. Throughout the war Eliot remonstrated 
strongly against selling the captive Indians into slavery. 
In a letter, June 13, 1675. to the governor and council at 
Boston, he stated his reasons for opposing the enslavement 
of the captives. He first urged a politic reason : that such 
enslavement was likely to prolong the war and bring still 
further disaster upon the land by rousing the Indians to 
renewed hostilities. He then emphasized the Christian atti- 
tude of mercy by asserting that it is the design of Christ 
" not to extirpate nations but to Gospelize them ". " To 
sell souls for money," he continued, " seems to me a dan- 
gerous merchandise. To sell them away from all means of 
grace, when Christ has provided means of grace for them, 
is the way for us to be active in the destroying of their 
souls." His plea for mercy was strengthened, also, by call- 
ing attention to the letters patent of the king which urged 
the Indians' conversion rather than their destruction. 1 

Some faint opposition to the enslavement of Indians was 
expressed by Samuel Sewall of Massachusetts in 1706, 
called forth by an act passed by Massachusetts against In- 
dians and negroes. Perhaps something was accomplished 
by the protest, though the act either failed to pass or was 
repealed, since no trace of it remains. 2 

1 Massachusetts Manuscript Records, xxx, No. 173; Plymouth Colony 
Records, x, pp. 451-453 ; New England Historical and Genealogical 
Register, vi, p. 297 and xxxii, p. 299; Winsor, The Memorial History 
of Boston, i, p. 322. 

1 Moore, Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts, p. 90. 



306 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [558 

In 1729, Ralph Sandiford published a work entitled: 
" The Mystery of Iniquity in a Brief Examination of the 
Practice of the Times." In the dedication of his book, he 
speaks of going to South Carolina, and of refusing the 
bounty of a rich colonist there because his riches had been 
obtained through the labor of negro and Indian slaves. He 
declares that negroes and Indians who are the Lord's free- 
men cannot be slaves to Christians. 1 He further asserts 
that the matter he is aiming at is " this trading in mankind, 
which is pernicious to the Publick, but more especially to 
the common-wealth of Israel ; which raised forth a zeal in 
Men for the House of the Lord, which would have even 
consumed men had not I witnessed against this rottenness 
and hypocrisy that would introduce itself amongst the 
saints, whereby, as way-marks, they lead many into the 
same corrupt practice which is contrary to the Principal of 
Truth, which is over the Heads of such Transgressors, 
that the Righteous in all Churches are undenled with it, for 
their Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost to dwell in, 
which they cannot defile with Babylon, who is Harloted 
from the Truth to feed upon the Flesh or receive nourish- 
ment from the blood of the poor Negro or Indian captive, 
or whomsoever ravenous Nature (which is the Beast's 
work) has power to prey upon ". 2 

Granville Sharp, in 1767, published in London a protest 
against slavery, in which he declared there could be no rea- 
sonable pretense for holding either negroes or Indians in 
slavery. In discussing the bringing about of a state of slav- 

In T/00, Sewall had publ : shed a protest acrainst slavery in general in the 
form of a tract: The Selling of Joseph, a Memorial. The trrct did 
not mention Indian slavery. Moore, op. cit., pp. 8,3-87; Massachusetts 
Historical Society Proceedings, 1863- 1864, pp. 161-165. 

1 Sandiford, The Mystery of Iniquity, etc., p. 19. 

2 Ibid., p. 96. 



559 ] THE DECLINE OF INDIAN SLAVERY ^ y 

ery through contract he declared that " in such a case there 
would still remain a great suspicion that some undue ad- 
vantage had been taken of the Indians' ignorance concern- 
ing the nature of such a bond." Slavery he declared a 
" shameless prostitution and infringement on the common 
and natural rights of mankind." Every inhabitant of the 
king's realm, regardless of color, he declared to be the 
king's subject, and asserted that no one, therefore, had a 
moral or legal right to enslave any such subject. 1 If color 
were a basis for slavery, he argued, then in a short time 
any Englishman might be enslaved since there was but little 
difference between the complexion of a northern Indian 
and a white man. 2 

Anthony Benezet, about 1750, began to express his oppo- 
sition to slavery in the almanacs and newspapers of the day. 
After three separate publications dealing with slavery in 
general, he issued in 1784 a book entitled " Some Observa- 
tions on the Situation, Disposition and Character of the In- 
dian Natives of this Continent." In this he refers to the 
kindness, hospitality and generosity of the Indians toward 
the English in the early days of trade, and laments the fart 
that " the adventurers from a thirst of gain overreached the 
natives ", so that the latter " saw some of their friends and 
relatives treacherously entrapped and carried away to be 
sold as slaves ". 3 

Throughout the colonial period the Society of Friends 
showed more or less opposition to slavery, although the 
members of the Society held slaves. From 1688 a certain 
amount of agitation concerning the matter is apparent in 
the records of the various quarterly and yearly meetings 

1 Sharp, Extract from a Representation of the Injustice, etc., p. 15. 

* Ibid., p. 13. 

* Benezet, Some Observations on the Situation, Disposition, etc., p 9. 
In a footnote he refers to Hunt's kidnapping act. 



308 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [560 

in Pennsylvania and the Jerseys. In the records of the 
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting for the year 1719, is 
found the first mention of Indian slaves made in the 
minutes of the Yearly Meeting. In that year, after an 
earnest admonition to Friends to refrain from sell- 
ing, trading or exchanging in any way any spiritu- 
ous liquors with the Indians, the Yearly Meeting voted : 
" And to avoid giving them occasion of discontent, it 
is desired, that Friends do not buy or sell Indian slaves." l 
From the wording of the record it may be concluded that 
the basis for the Friends' action was not the idea of any 
moral wrongdoing attached to the enslavement of Indians, 
but rather the possible harm that might come to the colony 
through the discontent which enslavement might cause 
among the free Indians. And, judging from the previous 
action of the Society taken with regard to slavery, it may 
also be concluded that this basis for the opposition to the 
trade in Indian slaves was used as a means of calling the 
immediate attention of its members to the matter, and that 
the reason for the opposition of the Meeting to trading in 
Indians was the same as that to negro slavery : "caution not 
censure ". 2 

1 Records of the Friends' Yearly Meeting of Pennsylvania and the 
Jersies, p. 211; Michener, A Retrospect of Early Quakerism, etc., pp. 
260, 341. According to custom the action of the Yearly Meeting was 
at once made known to the various Quarterly Meetings within its 
jurisdiction by extracts from its minutes. Such extracts recorded 
in the minutes of the various Quarterly Meetings for the year 1719 
contain exactly the same expression : "And to avoid giving them 
occasion of discontent, it is desired that Friends do not buy or sell 
Indian slaves." 

1 After 1719 the records show the opposition of the Yearly Meeting 
to have been expressed against slavery in general, and no mention 
is made of Indian slaves, though the records sometimes read : " negroes 
and other slaves." For the action of the Yearly Meeting at various 
times up to the time of the abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania in 
1780, see Pennsylvania Historical Society Memoirs, i, p. 392 et seq.; 



561] THE DECLINE OF INDIAN SLAVERY ^ 

Some criticism was expressed in Massachusetts at the 
seizure of the Indians at Cocheco in 1676, and the subse- 
quent transportation of part of the number captured by- 
order of the government. 1 Such criticism, however, was 
not aimed at the action of the government in selling the 
Indians as slaves, but at the breach of faith in seizing In- 
dians at peace. 

In South Carolina, as already observed, 2 the proprietors 
sanctioned enslavement of Indians when carried on for 
their own financial benefit, and opposed it when carried on 
by the colonial authorities. The colonial officials favored 
the practice and carried it on both as a means of meeting 
colonial expenses and as a source of personal income. In 
this respect the action of the existing colonial government 
of South Carolina differs materially from that of the offi- 
cials of any other colony. Nowhere else was the desire for 
personal gain a controlling cause for the disposal of cap- 
tives taken in war and hence colonial property. 

In contrast to these incidental expressions of personal 
opposition to the enslavement of Indians, stands the owner- 
ship and employment of them by leading colonists. 3 The 

Sharpless, A History of Quaker Government in Pennsylvania, ii, p. 
224 ct seq.: American Society of Church Publications, v ii, (article by 
Allen C. Thomas) ; Michener, A Retrospect of Early Quakerism, etc ; 
Pennsylvania Magazine of History, xiii, pp. 265 et seq. 

1 Williamson, The History of the State of Maine, etc., i, p. 539. 

2 Cf. above, pp. 173-174. 

8 Cotton Mather, Magnolia, edition of 1820, ii, p. 507; Diary, in 
Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, series 7, va, pp. 22, 203; 
Increase Mather, Ibid., series 7, viii, p. 232; The Reverend Mr. Brown 
of Haverhill (1723), Cbase, History of Haverhill, pp. 239, 248; The 
Reverend Mr. Thacher of Milton (1674), Earle, Customs and Posit- 
ions in Old New England, p. 84; the Reverend Mr Callicott of Dor- 
chester, Tooker, Cockenoe-dc-Long Island, p. 12; John Winthrop, 
Records of the Court of Assistants, Colony of Massachusetts Bay, 
1630-1C92, ii, p. 91 ; Daniel Gookin, New England Historical and 



310 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [562 

New Englanders not only bought Indians at the time of the 
Indian wars, but also sent requests to the colonial officials 
for them. Captain Stoughton wrote to Governor Win- 
throp from the scene of the Swamp Fight : " By this pin- 
nace, you shall receive 48 or 50 women and children, un- 
less there stay any here to be helpful, concerning which 
there is one, I formerly mentioned, that is the fairest and 
largest amongst them to whom I have given a coate to 
cloathe her. It is my desire to have her for a servant, if 
it may stand to your good liking, else not. There is a little 
squaw that steward Culacut desireth, to whom he hath 
given a coate. Lieut. Davenport also desireth one, to wit, 
a small one, that has three strokes upon her stomach. . . . 
He desireth her, if it will stand with your good liking. 
Sosomon, the Indian, desireth a young little squaw, which 
I know not." x The Reverend Hugh Peter also wrote to 
Governor Winthrop in 1637: " Mr. Endecot and my selfe 
salute you in the Lord Jesus, etc. Wee haue heard of a 
diuidence of women and children in the bay and would bee 
glad of a share viz: a young woman or girle and a boy if 
you thinke good : I wrote to you for some boyes for Ber- 
mudas, which I thinke is considerable." 2 In July, 1637, 
Roger Williams petitioned Governor Winthrop for an In- 
dian as follows : " It having againe pleased the Most High 
to put into your hands another miserable droue of Adams 
degenerate seede, & our brethren by nature. I am bold (if 

Genealogical Register, viii, p. 272; Governor Berkeley of Virginia, 
IVilliam and Mary Col'ege Quarter 'y, vi, p 214; Colonel Pollock, acting 
governor of North Carol'na, North Carolinia Colonial Records, ii, 
p. 52; Governor West of South Carolina, Hewat, op cit, i, p. 74; and 
Governor Moore of South Carolina, Hewat, op. cit., i, p. 140, are im- 
portant cases in point. 

'Sylvester, op. cit., i, p. 293; Drake, Book of the Indians, n'nth 
edition, bk. ii, p. 107. 

* Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, series 4, vi, p. 95. 



563] THE DECLINE OF INDIAN SLAVERY 311 

I may not offend in it) to request the keeping & bringing 
vp of one of the children. I haue fixed mine eye on this 
litle one with the red about his neck, but I will not be per- 
emptory in my choice, but will rest in your loving pleasure 
for him or any, &c." x The barrister, Emanuel Downing, 
writing to John Winthrop in 1645, clearly illustrates the 
view of his day. He says: " A warr with the Narraganset 
is verie considerable to this plantation, ffor I doubt whither 
yt be not synne in vs, hauing power in our hands, to suffer 
them to maynteyne the worship of the devill which their 
paw wawes often doe; 2lie, If vpon a Just warre the Lord 
should deliuer them into our hands, wee might easily haue 
men woemen and children enough to exchange for Moores, 
which wilbe more gaynefull pilladge for vs then wee con- 
ceive, for I doe not see how wee can thrive vntill wee gett 
into a stock of slaves sufficient to doe all our buisines, for 
our children's children will hardly see this great Continent 
filled with people, soe that our servants will still desire free- 
dome to plant for them selues, and not stay but for verie 
great wages. And I suppose you know verie well how wee 
shall maynteyne 20 Moores cheaper then one Englishe ser- 
vant." 2 

In only a few of the English-American colonies were at- 
tempts made by legislative enactment to end Indian slavery 
as a system separate from negro slavery. The reasons for 
this fact are obvious. In the course of time Indian slavery 
became absorbed by the institution of negro slavery to such 
an extent that it attracted no attention. With the various 
colonial acts at the time of the Tuscarora War, which for- 
bade the further importation of Indians into the northern 
colonies, the system was maintained only by the natural in- 

1 Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, series 4, vi. pp. 195- 
196. 

2 Ibid., series 4, vi, p. 65. 



3i2 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [564 

crease of the Indian slaves already in existence. So Indian 
slavery existed as an unimportant system along with and 
overshadowed by negro slavery until the spirit of opposi- 
tion to the institution of slavery in general grew sufficiently 
strong to lead to legislation providing for the abolition of 
slavery in various colonies. 

The first colony to take such legislative action was Vir- 
ginia, but in this instance there is a slight possibility that 
the intent of the act to be discussed was quite different from 
what later interpretations have considered it to be. In 
1691, " by implication rather than by the terms of the act ", 
Indian slavery was rendered illegal by an act authorizing a 
free and open trade for all persons, at all times and all 
places, with all Indians whatsoever. 1 It is barely possible 
that the " legislature may have viewed the act as a treaty 
with a nation which, ipso facto, was recognized as of equal 
status as to freedom, while the treaty in no wise prevented 
subsequent enslavement of individuals sold by the nation 
itself to the whites, or of hostile captives, or of Indians not 
native North Americans as generally understood ". 2 But 
it is generally considered that the act was intended, as it 
was later construed, to acknowledge the free condition of 
all Indians. If the colonists of the time so construed it, 
they intentionally disobeyed it and enslavement of Indians 
continued. In 1705, a similar act was passed with the same 
enacting clause. 3 Cases arising later showed a similar 
failure to accomplish desired results. 

In 1777, the assembly, when called to pass upon the 
matter, decided that no Indians brought into Virginia since 
the passage of the act of 1705, or their descendants, could 

1 Hen'ng, op. cit., ii, p. 267. 

2 Ballagh, A History of Slavery in Virginia, p. 50 
8 Hening, op. cit., iii, p. 468. 



565] THE DECLINE OF INDIAN SLAVERY 313 

be slaves in the commonwealth. 1 At that time knowledge 
of the existence of the act of 1691 seems to have disap- 
peared. 2 Even after the decision of the assembly in 1777, 
the settlement of the matter was so far uncertain as to give 
rise to certain cases in law in 1792 and 1793, appealed from 
the County Court to the Court of Appeals to maintain the 
right to the services of the descendants of Indians enslaved 
after the passing of the act of 1705. In both these cases 
the higher court affirmed the decision of the lower courts 
which granted freedom to the Indians thus held as slaves, 
and which interpreted the act of 1705 as repealing all 
former acts permitting the existence of Indian slavery in 
the colony. 3 

In 1806, the Supreme Court of the state decided that In- 
dians had always been considered free persons in fact and 
in right, and that the presumption was that all Indians in- 
troduced into the state at any time, were prima facie pre- 
sumed to be free, or that, if the date of their introduction 
did not appear, the prima facie presumption was that they 
were American Indians, or brought in after the act of 1705, 
and therefore free. 4 In 1808, came the judicial recognition 
of the law of 1691. A Supreme Court decision of that year 
declared " that no native American Indian brought into 
Virginia since the year 1691 could under any circumstances 
lawfully be made a slave. It was also held by the court 
that if a female ancestor of a person asserting a right to 

1 Tucker, A Dissertation on Slavery, p. 35; Wheeler, A Practical 
Treatise of the Law of Slavery, p. 19. 

1 See Ballagh, op cit., p. 50, for a discuss ; on of the disappearance of 
this act Not until 1806 was it discovered that the act of 1705 was 
a repetition of that of 1691. 

3 Ballagh, op. cit, p. 51; 1 Washington, pp. 123 (Jenkins v. Tom), 
233 (Coleman v. Dick.) 

* Wheeler, op. cit., p. 19, (Hudgins v. Wright). 



314 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [ 5 65 

freedom, whose genealogy could be traced back to such 
ancestor by females only, be proved to have been an In- 
dian, " it seems incumbent on those who claim such perso.i 
as a slave to show that such ancestor, or some female from 
which she descended, was brought into Virginia between 
the years 1679 and 1691, and under circumstances which, 
according to the laws then in force, created a right to hold 
her in slavery." 1 

In the case of Butt v. Rachel et al., 1814, the plaintiffs 
claimed their freedom as descendants of a native female 
Indian who was brought into Virginia about the year 1747. 
The court instructed the jury that no native American In- 
dian brought into Virginia since the year 1691, could, 
under any circumstances, be made a slave. The defendant 
claimed to hold the slaves on the ground that they were the 
descendants of a native American Indian woman who was 
held as a slave on the island of Jamaica, and brought to 
Virginia as a slave about the year 1747. The defendant 
moved the court to instruct the jury that a native Ameri- 
can Indian held as a slave on the island of Jamaica by the 
laws of that island, might be held as a slave when imported 
into Virginia. The court refused so to do, and judgment 
was awarded the plaintiff. The case was appealed, but the 
court sustained the judgment. 2 

Considering the possibility already mentioned that the 
act of 1 69 1 may have been intended to apply only to In- 
dians outside the colony and that it did not apply to those in 
the colony, either free or enslaved, and the fact that the 
later legislative action of 1777 and the cases in law already 
mentioned show that the law was either misconstrued or 

1 2 Hening and Munford, p. 149 (Pallas v. Hill); James, English 
Inst'tutions and the American Indians, p. 47, in Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity Studies, xii. 

1 Wheeler, op. cit., p. 18. 



567] THE DECLINE OF INDIAN SLAVERY ^15 

ignored, the acts of 1691 and 1705, so far as putting an 
end to Indian slavery in Virginia in colonial times is con- 
cerned, might as well have never existed. 1 

At a later date, South Carolina also enacted laws which, 
by court decision, were interpreted to mean the abolition of 
Indian slavery. The act of 1740 2 stated that " all negroes, 
Indians (free Indians in amity with this government, and 
negroes, mulattoes, or mestizoes who are now free, ex- 
cepted), mulattoes, or mestizoes, who are now or who shall 
hereafter be in this province, and all their issue and off- 
spring born, or to be born, shall be, and they are hereby de- 
clared to be and remain forever hereafter, absolute slaves, 
and shall follow the condition of the mother." Under this 
provision it has been uniformly held that color was prima 
facie evidence that the party bearing the color of a negro, 
mulatto or mestizo, was a slave ; but the same prima facie 
result did not follow from the Indian color, according to 
the decision of the courts. 3 After the passage of the act, 
Indians and descendants of Indians were regarded as free 
Indians in amity with the government, until the contrary 
was shown. Elsewhere in the act of 1740 it is declared that 
"every negro, Indian, mulatto, and mestizo is a slave unless 
the contrary can be made to appear ", yet in the same act 
it is immediately thereafter provided — " the Indians in 
amity with this government excepted, in which case the 

1 If this interpretation of the acts of 1691 and 1705 be the true one, 
then they belong in the same class with the acts of the northern 
colonies which were passed at the time of the Tuscarora War for 'he 
purpose of putting an end to the importation of Indians, but which 
did not aim to put an end to the s atus of slavery as applied to Indians. 

1 The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vii, p. 397- By previous 
acts of 1712, 1722 and 1735; South Carolina had specified who were 
to be slaves. Ibid., vii, p. 352 ; vii, p. 37* ', vii, p. 3%5- 

3 3 Spears, p. 128 (The Sta'e v. Harden, 1832) ; I Richardson, p. 324 
(Nelson v. Whetmore, 1844). 



316 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [568 

burden of the proof shall lie on the defendant ", that is on 
the person claiming the Indian plaintiff to be a slave. This 
latter clause of the provision grew to be considered the rule, 
and so the race of slave Indians, or of Indians not in amity 
with the government, passed out of existence and the pre- 
vious part of the provision lost its application. 1 

By an act of May 18, 1652, passed by the Commissioners 
of Providence Plantations and Warwick, it was provided 
that " no black mankind, or white, being forced to cov- 
enant, bond or otherwise, serve any man or his assigns 
longer than ten years, or until they come to be twenty-four 
years of age, if they be taken under fourteen, from the time 
of their coming within the limits of this colony, and at the 
end or term of ten years to set them free, as the matter is 
with the English servants ". 2 The act makes no mention 
of Indian slaves, doubtless because at this early date there 
were not enough in the colony to arouse interest in their 
condition. 

When at the time of King Philip's War Indian slaves 
were being transported by Massachusetts and distributed 
among the settlements, Rhode Island, March, 1676, passed 
a law concerning them similar to the law of 1652 relating 
to negroes. This act provided that " no Indian in this col- 
ony be a slave but only to pay their debts, or for their bring- 
ing up, or courtesy they have received, or to perform cov- 
enant, as if they had been countrymen not in war." 3 

In colonial New York it was customary to discriminate 

1 O'Neall, The Negro Law of South Carolina, p. 5. 

1 Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 
i, P- 243. 

8 Laws and Acts made from the First Settlement of Her Majesties 
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations by the General 
Assembly of said Colony, etc., edition of 1705, p. 54; Upd'ke, History 
of the Narragansett Church, p. 171 ; Staples, Annals of the Town of 
Providence, second edition, p. 171. 



-69] THE DECLINE OF INDIAN SLAVERY ^17 

between the free natives of the colony and those brought 
from the Spanish West Indies. On December 5, 1679, it 
was voted at a council meeting that " all Indians here are 
free and not slaves, except such as have been formerly 
brought from the Bay of Campeachy and other foreign 
parts ", some of whom were slaves in the colony. Con- 
cerning such foreign Indians the act provided: " But if any 
shall be brought hereafter within the space of six months, 
they are to be disposed of as soon as may be. out of the 
government, but after the expiration of six months, all that 
shall be brought here from these parts shall be free ".* On 
April 20, 1680, a decree of governor and council repeated 
this resolution as a formal order. 2 Apparently no imme- 
diate attention was given to the enforcement of the law. 
Later some action regarding the matter was taken when 
the council, October 11, 1687, ordered that certain Spanish 
Indians brought from the Bay of Campeachy and sold as 
slaves in the colony should be set free. 8 On July 30, 1688, 
the council again took up the question of foreign Indians. 
It was resolved " that all Indian slaves within this province 
subject to the King of Spain, that can give an account of 
their Christian faith and say the Lord's Prayer, be forth- 
with set at liberty, and sent home by the first conveyance, 
and likewise them that shall hereafter come to the province. 4 
On the same day the council rejected a petition of the 
owner to retain in the colony an Indian slave purchased 
outside the colony and brought to New York. 5 

1 New York Colonial Documents, xiii, p. 537; Brodhead, op. cit., 
first edition, ii, p. 331. 

1 Brodhead, op. cit., first edition, ii, 331; Minutes of the Common 
Council of the City of New York, i, p. 80. 

8 Brodhead, op. cit., first edition, ii, p. 486. 

* Ibid., first edition, ii, p. 509. 

5 Ibid., first edition, ii. p. 510. 



3 i8 INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES [570 

The numerous petitions to the governor to free such In- 
dians from slavery, and his attitude in the matter, show the 
colonial authorities willing to stand by their legislation on 
the subject. On December 28, 1700, such a petition was 
presented by the mayor and aldermen of New York City to 
the governor, demanding the release of a free born Indian 
woman, a native of Curasao, then held as a slave in New 
York. 1 On July 15, 1703, Jacobus Kierstead, a mari- 
ner, of New York, petitioned the governor regarding 
an Indian brought by him from the West Indies and 
sold as a slave. 2 Soon after Governor Hunter's ar- 
rival in the province a petition was handed him on be- 
half of a number of free-born Spanish subjects thus held 
as slaves. 3 Among the victims was one Stephen Domingo, 
a native of Carthagena, who had been held as a slave for 
eight years. Hunter became interested in the matter and 
wrote to the Board of Trade, June 23, 1712, that 
there were Spanish Indians in New York who had 
been unjustly kept there in slavery for many years. 
He discovered that one Husea and one John, both held as 
slaves and both engaged in the slave conspiracy of 171 2, 
were brought to New York as prisoners of war taken from 
a Spanish ves?el by a privateer; that they were Spanish- 
American Indians and subjects of the king of Spain, sold 
as slaves in New York and kept in bondage six or seven 
-years " by reason of their color which is swarthy ". They 
declared they were sold among many others of the same 
color and the same country. These two Indians Governor 
Hunter reprieved awaiting the queen's pleasure. The In- 
dians who petitioned, though he " secretly pitied their con- 

1 O'Callaghan, Calendar of Historical Manuscripts, e'e, pt. ii, p. 279. 
* Ibid., pt. ii, p. 314. July 20, 1703, Thomas Newton, marner, made 
deposit'on that he purchased this slave at Jamaica. Ibid., ii, p. 314. 
8 New York Colonial Documents, v, p. 342. 



571 ] THE DECLINE OF INDIAN SLAVERY ^IQ 

dition ", he was unable to help as he had no other evidence 
than their words. 1 

Rhode Island is the only other colony which took direct 
action concerning Spanish Indians, but even Rhode Island 
never put forth any general legislation on the matter. Spec- 
ial action was taken similar to that in New York. In 1746, 
the general assembly of Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations voted to send back to the West Indies certain 
free subjects of the king of Spain who had been captured 
and sold in the colony as slaves. 2 These, like the others 
mentioned, were captives taken in the recent war with 
Spain. 3 Here, as in New York, the point involved was one 
of international importance, and the Indians concerned 
were considered, not as Indians but as the objects about 
which the point was raised. 

The other colonies of the original thirteen which finally 
took legislative action to end the institution of slavery in 
general did not accomplish such action during the colonial 
period ; so the conclusion remains that with the exception 
of Virginia, South Carolina, Rhode Island and New York, 
none of the colonies ever declared Indian slavery illegal. 

1 New York Colonial Documents, v, pp. 342, 357. The Lords of 
Trade regarded Hunter's action favorably, and on August 27, 1712, 
recommended to her majesty 'o grant a pardon to the Spanish Indians 
then in prison for engaging in the conspiracy. 

* Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 
v, p 176. 

• CofFn, A Sketch of the History of Newbury, etc., p. 337, contains a 
receipt for the sale of a Spanish Indian boy in 1718. 



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INDEX 



Acolapissa, Indian tribe, attacked and 
enslaved by Chickasaw and English, 

185 

Abnaki, Indian tribe, take slaves from 
Illinois, 70 

Adoption, 43 

Addmgton, Isaac, secretary of council of 
safety, 293; hires Indians, 293 

Advertisements of Indian slaves, 243, 
244 

Agona, chief, seized by Cartier, 72 

Agriculture, 36, 83 

Alabama, tribe, enslave and sell Mo- 
bile Indians, 75 

Algonquin, nation, hold Indian slaves, 
28 

Albany, common council, act concerning 
fugitive slaves, 221 ; treaty of, 202; 
restrictions on slaves, 260 

Alcaldes, enslave Indians, 61 

Altamaha, tribe, 75 

Amalgamation, cause of decline of slav- 
ery, 107, 287 

Anastasius, Father, given an Indian girl, 
81 

Antilles, discovery, 48 

Apache, tribe, enslaved by Choctaw, 30 

Apalache, tribe, enslaved by Carolina 
settlers, 1 20, 121 ; attacked by Eng- 
lish Indians, 171; attack missions of 
Santa Catalina and Santa Fe, 179 

Archdale, John, governor of South Caro- 
lina, tries to check trade in Indians, 
178 

Archbishop of Canterbury, 268 

Aricara, tribe, 31 

Arizona, 30, 60 

Arkansas, tribe, 27, 64, 70, 75 

Assembly, of South Carolina, takes up 
matter of trade in Indians, 180-185; 
of Virginia regarding Indian slaves, 
186 

Athapascan, hold slaves, 33 
Atlantic slope, Indian slavery in, 25 

593] 



Awanthonks, squaw sachem, 148 
Azores, Indians carried to, 125, 127 

Bacon, sells captives as slaves, 119; in- 
stigates assembly to legalize enslave- 
ment of Indians, 131 

Bacon, Lord, sees Indians in England, 

Bannister, Mr., before Board of Trade, 
188 

Baptism, of Indian slaves, 88, 89; rela- 
tion to freedom, 267-275 

Barbadoes, governor of, sends Indians 
back to Massachusetts, 167; South 
Carolina sends Indians to, 202 

Barnwell, Colonel, expedition to Florida, 
120; expedition to North Carolina, 
122 

Barter, 27, 37, (see trade) 

Bartram, on Indian slaves, 35, 42 

Bellomont, Governor, reports on relig- 
ious conditions of slaves, 272 

Bermudas, Indian slaves carried to, 124, 
127, 202 

Benezet, Anthony, opposed to Indian 
slavery, 307 

Berkeley, Dean, on decrease of number 
of Indians, 286; on Indians as hired 
servants, 294 

Berkeley, Sir William, on conditions in 
Virginia, 108; sells Indian captives, 
119; proposes enslavement of In- 
dians, 131 ; buys Indian slaves, 301 

Biei.ville, commandant at New Orleans, 
28, 64; orders Canadian P'rench to 
stop urging Indians to war, 78; pro- 
poses exchanging Indians in West 
Indies for negroes, 78,97; sells In- 
dians to English, 78; complains of 
neglect of agriculture in Louisiana, 
84; states that French colonists de- 
sire negroes, 97; arranges peace be- 
tween Choctaw and Chickasaw, 173 

Birth, method of enslavement, 207 

341 



342 



INDEX 



[594 



Birth-rate, decreased, cause of decline 
of Indian slavery, 285 

Blackfeet, tribe, slavery among, 45 

Block Island, slaves in, no 

Blount, Tom, chief, receives Indian 
captives as slaves as reward for aid- 
ing English, 133 

Board of Commissioners, appointed by 
South Carolina to deal with trade in 
Indians, 181; attempts to check 
traders, 183 

Board of Trade, reports to, in, 1 18 

Bossu, journey of, 70 

Boston News Letter, beginning of, 218; 
advertises runaways, 218 

Boston, slaves in, 109, 126, 180, 187, 
274, 299; prohibitions on slaves, 260 

Bradford, on number of Indians, 284 

Branding, punishment, 261 

Bressani, Father, captured by Iroquois, 

47 
Bristol Parish, Virginia, Indian slaves 

in, 229 
British Columbia, Indian slavery in, 46 

Cabo de Santa Elena, Cape, 53 
Cabot, Sebastian, kidnaps Indians, 154 
Cadadaquiou, tribe, enslaved, 30 
Cadillac, report concerning Indian 

slaves, 78 
Cahouita, tribe, enslaved, 75 
Calicott, Richard, has Indian slave, 243 
California, 33; missions, 59, 60 
Canada, acquisition of, 64; population 

of, 93 
Capawick ( Martha's Vineyard), 157 
Cape Fear, Indians kidnapped, 159, 197 
Cape Francois, Indians sent to, 67, 68 
Capitulation of Montreal, 64, 93 
Carolina, Indians captured, 29; In- 
dians exported from, 117; coureurs 
de hois sell Indians into, 168; French 
idea concerning policy of, 1 71 
Carondelet, Baron, orders slaves to re- 
main with owners, 58 
Cartier, kidnaps Indians, 71, 72; re- 
ceives Indians as gifts, 79; uses In- 
dian slaves as guides, 82 
Catawba tribe, reduced in numbers, 287 
Cenis, tribe, have slaves, 34, 37, 38 
Champigny, sends Indians to France, 73 
Champlain, given Indians by a chief, 80 
Charity, Indian girl given Champlain, 80 
Charleston, Indian slaves in, 109, 121, 

1 So 
Chat, tribe, enslaved, 29 



Cherokee, tribe, abolish slavery, 46; 
hostile to English, 136; treaty with, 
136; demand that English give up en- 
slaved members of their tribe, 137; 
sold as slaves, 137; complain that 
tribes prey on each other for slaves, 
170; other tribes join with, 287 

Chester County, Pennsylvania, Indian 
slaves in, 116 

Chickasaw, tribe, war with French, 69; 
slave of Bienville, 86; prey on tribes 
for captives to sell, 30, 171; allies of 
English, 34, 171; French try to de- 
stroy alliance of, 171 ; lose 500 pris- 
oners in ten years, 172; obtain slaves 
from distant nations, 172; French at- 
tempt to make them friends of Choc- 
taw, '.73; attack Choctaw, 173; en- 
slave Shawnee, 173; armed by Eng- 
lish of Virginia, 185 

Children, sold for food, 26 

Chimmesyan, tribe, 33 

Chinook, tribe, slavery among, 46 

Chinookan, tribe, 33 

Choctaw, tribe, enslave other Indians, 
30, 75; friends of French, 33; allies 
of English, 171; lose 800 prisoners in 
ten years, 172; French attempt to 
make them friends of Chickasaw, 173 

Chouman, tribe, 34 

Church, sanctions slavery, 48; mission- 
ary labors of, 87 

Church, Captain Benjamin, receives 
Indians to transport, 140; instructed 
to go against Indians, 142; to distri- 
bute captives among soldiers, 142; 
to receive captives from governor of 
Rhode Island, .'42 

Church act, 269 

Cibola, 31, 52 

Clermont, Sieur Pierre, manumits Indian 
slave, 95 

Clinton, Governor, on Indian slaves in 
New York, 114; tries to prevent 
abuse of apprenticeship, 206 

Clothing of slaves, 42, 251-252 

Cocheco, seizure of Indians at, 147, 309 

Code Noir, 90, 102. 

Collacot, Sergeant, agreement of Massa- 
chusetts with, 222 
Colonists, of Louisiana, character of, 82: 

used slave women as mistresses, 82 
Columbia River country, Indian slavery 

in, 33? 45. 46 
Columbus, enslaves Indians, 48 
Comanche, tribe, 86 



595] 



INDEX 



343 



Company, of the Indies, 64; of the 
West, 102; of Providence Islands, 
125 

Compostella, 54. 

Concessions, negroes on, 102 

Congaree, tribe, preys on weaker tribes, 
170 

Corannine, tribe, destruction of, 287 

Cosme, owns Indian slave, 81 

Connecticut, slaves in, no, in, 123, 
128, [30-131; act against importing 
Indians, 189-191; enslaves Indians 
as punishment, 206; restricts Indian 
slaves, 260 ; favors religious instruc- 
tion of slaves, 275; exchanges Indian 
slave for land, 277; regulates manu- 
mission, 281; regulates action of 
slaves, 290; finds Indian slaves un- 
satisfactory, 291; hired Indians in, 
294; indentured Indians in, 295 

Cooks, hired Indians as, 243; Indian 
slaves as, 243 

Copper, object of barter, 27 

Cornbury, Governor, on fugitive slave 
law, 221 ; helps in conversion of 
slaves, 268 

Coronado, Francisco Vasquez de, 31, 
52, 53; uses Indian slaves as guides, 

55 
Council, Indian, 40, 42; grand of South 

Carolina sends agents to remove 

Indian slaves from plantations, 175; 

opposed to proprietors, 176 

Coureurs de bois, stir up tribes, 64; pur- 
chase Indians, 75, 76, 77, 78, 168; 
Indianized Frenchmen, 87; trade, 96 

Cramoisy, on Indian slaves, 86 

Creeks, tribe, enslaved by Indians, 121; 
other tribes join with, 287 

Crows, tribe, slavery among, 45 

Cruzat, Lieutenant-governor, proclama- 
tion of against enslavement of In- 
dians, 58 

Culacut, Steward, desires Indian slaves, 
310 

Cutler, Reverend Timothy, reports on 
religious condition of slaves in Bos- 
ton, 274 

Dartmouth, Indians, seized by Plymouth, 

146 
Davenport, Lieutenant, desires Indian 

slave, 310; Reverend John, on Indian 

slaves, 209 
Dealers, in Indians state reasons for 

traffic, 177 



Death, punishment, 261 

De Ayllon, cedula issued to, 49; sends 
expedition, 53 

De Beauharnois, governor of Canada, 94 

De Boucherville, journey to Canada, 32 

De Bourgmont, 32, 64; purchases In- 
dians, 74, 80; sends Indian slaves to 
New Orleans, 74; uses slave as inter- 
preter, 82; uses slaves as bribes and 
rewards, 86 

Decline of Indian slavery, 59, 96-102, 
281-319 

Deer Island, Indians sent to, 143 

De Figueroa, Vasco Porcallo, 52 

De la Barre, expedition against Iro- 
quois, 85 

De Leon, patent of, 49; proclamation 
of, 50 

Le Lignery, proposes that tribes ex- 
change slaves, 38 

De Louvignery, demands slaves of Fox 
Indians, 71 

De Morfi, Fray Agustin, describes 
mission, 61 

De Narvaez, 5 1 ; collapse of expedition, 

53 
De Niza, Fray Marcos, 52 
Denonville, expedition against Iroquois, 

85 
Derby, Indian slaves in, 300 
Detroit, 38, 75; slavery in, 93, 99 
De Vaca, Cabeza, enslaved, 46; on In- 
dian slavery, 54 
De Vaudreuil, governor - general of 
Canada, demands slaves from tribes, 

70 
Disease, cause of decline of Indian 

slavery, 41, 96, 283, 285 
Doagges, tribe, 131 
Dongan, Governor, report on religious 

condition of slaves, 272 
Donnes, 66 
Dubuisson, 38 

Du Chapart, governor of Ft. Rosalie, 67 
Dudley, Governor, report on slaves, 109 
Duke's Laws, on baptism of slaves, 272 
Du Luth, 38; expedition, 74; given 

Indian slaves, 81 ; uses slave as 

guide, 82 
Dunmore, Earl of, authorizes court for 

trial of slaves, 256 
Dunn, pastor of South Carolina parish, 

to S. P. G. F. P., 267 
Du Pont, receives Indian as gift, 80 
Dutch, enslave and transport Indians, 

1 1 2-1 13 



344 



INDEX 



[59^> 



Du Tisne, 28, 31, 73, 74; meditates 
peace between Pawnee and Padouca, 



East Nottingham, Pennsylvania, Indian 

slaves in, 11^ 
Eliot, John, redeems Indian slaves sold 

abroad, 128; hires Indians, 293; 

translates Bible, 293; opposed to 

Indian slavery, 305 ; has Indian slave 

as tutor, 243 
Employment of Indian slaves, 35-39, 

55, 83 86, 242-249 
Endicot (Endecot , desires Indian slave, 

310 
England, rival power, 71 
Erie, tribe, enslaved, 29 
Esaw, tribe, prey on western tribes, 170 
Esclavos, Indian community, 25 
Esquimaux, enslaved, 28 
Eyanoco, chief, has white slaves, 46 
Faith, Indian girl given to Champlain, 

80 
Famine, cause of slavery, 26, 41 
Fayal, one of Azores, 125; Indians 

carried from Plymouth to, 125; 

Indians seized by Laughton carried 

to, 161 
Fishing, employment of Indian slaves, 

37 
Flathead, tribe, 32 
Florida, 27, 29, 30, 48, 51, 52, 59; free 

Indians in, 284 
Fontaine, Reverend Peter, advocates 

intermarriage of whites and Indians, 

252 
Fontanedo, 48 
Food, of slaves, 42 
Forbes, account of church in Virginia, 

269 
Fort Carolina, 79 
Fort Royal, 119 
Fox, tribe, war with French, 69, 71; 

valley, 87 
France, 66, 71 ; Indians carried to, 71, 

72; laws of, 89; sends indentured 

white servants to America, 100; 

sends negroes to America, 101 
Franciscans, 59 
Friends, own Indian slaves, 115-116; 

opposed to Indian slavery, 307 
Friends' yearly meeting, action on 

slavery, 1 16 
Freedom, of slaves, 42,43,44,45 (see 

manumission.) 
Fremin, Father, 35 



Frobisher, kidnaps Indians, 155 

Fugitive slave law, 220; in articles of 
confederation of United Colonies, 
224 

Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, 
269 

Fur trade, 73, 74; connected with pur- 
chase of slaves from Indians, 168 

Galleys, French, Indian slaves in, 73 

Gamblers, Indians as, 26 

Gtneral court, Massachusetts, autho- 
rizes enslavement of Indians, 124, 
126, 127, 128, 137, 139; decree re- 
garding retention of male Indian 
slaves in colony, 145; Plymouth, 
137; disposes of captives, 139; de- 
cree regarding retention of male 
Indian slaves in colony, 145; decree 
regarding purchase of captive Indian 
children, 146; sanctions seizure of 
peaceable Indians, 146; disposes of 
Dartmouth Indians, 146; Connecti- 
cut, orders that Indians who sur- 
render shall not be transported, 149; 
arranges to dispose of captives, 149 

Georgia, report on, 107; slaves in. 108 

Gibson, bishop of London, declares 
baptism does not free slaves, 275 

Gomez, 51 

Gookin, Lieutenant-governor, receives 
complaint of Indians regarding kid- 
napping, 162 

Goose Creek, parish in South Carolina, 
267 

Gorges, Sir Ferdinand, patron of Wey- 
mouth, 154; given Indians, 155, 157; 
condemns capture of Indians, 158 

Great Lakes, 28, 36 

Great Plains, 25 

Great Sun, chief of Natchez, 68 

Green Bay, 38 

Grelon, 27 

Guns, objects of barter, 27 

Ilaida, tribe, 33 

Harley, Captain Henry, brings Indians 
to Gorges, 157 

Harlow, Captain Edward, kidnaps In- 
dians, 157 

Hartford, levies on slaves of townsmen, 
247 

Haskell, pastor of St. Thomas parish, 
South Carolina, 267 

Hatchets, objects of barter, 27 

Hawaikuh, 52 



597] 



INDEX 



345 



Heathcote, to Townsend, 200 
Hempstead, Indian slaves in, 114, 201 
Hendrickson, finds Indian slaves in 
Schuylkill River country, 29; finds 
white slaves among Mohawk, 47 
Hennepin, on slaves among Iroquois, 

35 

Hispaniola, Indian slaves in, 53 

Hobson, Captain, brings two of Hunt's 
Indian captives back to America, 158 

Hocquart, intendant of Canada, 94 

Holman, Ensign, agreement of Massa- 
chusetts with, 222 

Hope, Indian girl given Champlain, 80 

Horse, tribe, 32 

Hunt, Captain Thomas, kidnaps In- 
dians, 158 

Hunter, Governor, petition to, regarding 
Spaniards in New York, 318 

Hunting, occupation of Indian slaves, 37 

Hupa, tribe, 33 

Huron, tribe, 27, 2S, 29, 32, 34, 35, 36, 

37. 42 
Hyde, Governor, on enslavement of 
Indians, 133 

Iberville, baptism of his Indian slave, 89 
Illinois, tribe, 27, 28, 29, 31, 37, 38, 64, 
70, 80; area, 32; Indian slaves in, 
93, 102; negro slaves in, 102 
Incle and Varico, play and opera, 303 
Indentured servants, Indians as, 295; 

white, 295-297 
Indians, as hired laborers. 59; as ap- 
prentices, 196 
Indian slaves, among the aborigines, 
25-47; among the Spaniards, 48 62; 
among the French, 63-102; among 
the English, 102-319; in the Caro- 
linas, 66-108; in Georgia, 108; in 
Virginia, 108; in Massachusetts, 109- 
110; in Rhode Island, no; in Con- 
necticut, no- in; in New Hamp- 
shire, in; in New Netherland, 112- 
113; in New York, 113; in Pennsyl- 
vania, 1 '5; in New Jersey, 116; in 
Maryland, 117; by warfare, 11 8-1 53; 
war with Stono Indians, 119; war 
with Kussoe Indians, 119; war of 
Spanish succession, 119; Tuscarora 
War, 121; Pequot War, 123; King 
Philip's War, 125; Bacon's rebellion, 
131 ; disposed of by colonial govern- 
ments, 132-152; by kidnapping, 154- 
167; by trade, 168-195; so ^ by 
family or tribe. 196; abuse of ap- 



prenticeship, 198-201 ; punishment, 
201; birth, 207-210; considered prop- 
erty, 21 1-24 1: bought and sold, 216; 
advertised for sale, 216; disposed of 
by will, 216; runaways advertised, 
218, 219; disputes concerning, settled 
by court, 225; personal property, 
226; real property, 226; regarded 
as taxables, 227-228; import and 
export duties on, 233; as hunters, 
fisherman and guides, 242; employed 
in fields, 244-245; in manual occu- 
pations, 245; hired out by owners, 
245; in military occupations, 246- 
249; captured by French from Eng- 
lish army, 246; included by implica- 
tion in legislative acts relating to 
slaves, 253; right to testify in court, 
254-255; granted right to life, 255; 
prohibitions on, 259, 260; punish- 
ments, 260-264; religious instruction 
of, 264-275; manumission, 57, 94- 
95, 276-282; freed by owner, 276; 
purchase freedom, 276; regulation 
of actions after emancipation, 2S0; 
decline of use of, 283-319; poor 
domestics, 288; implicated in slave 
disturbances, 289; included in laws 
concerning slaves by implication, 290; 
values of, 298-302: less valuable 
than negroes, 302; use of, abolished 
in Virginia, 312; in South Carolina, 
315; in Rhode Island, 316; in New 
York, 317 

Iroquois, tribe, 27, 28, 29, 31, 34, 35, 36, 
37, 38, 41 ; effect on Indian slavery, 
117 

Ipswich, slaves in, 109, 298 

Jenney, Reverend, on Indian slaves, 
114, 273 

Jesuits, 27, 34, 35, 41, 42; oppose sale 
of Indians, 78, 79; enslaved by Iro- 
quois, 47 

Johnson, missionary in South Carolina, 
on Indian slaves, 121 

Johnson, Nathaniel, governor of Caro- 
lina, 106; report on condition of 
Carolina, 106; refuses to sell Indian 
perquisites, 183 

Johnson, Robert, governor of Carolina, 
makes peace between nations, 172 

Johnson, William, on Indian slaves in 
New York, 114 

Jolliet, given an Indian, 80 



346 

Jones, Reverend Hugh, on baptizing 
Indian and negro slaves, 271 

Jordan, river, 53 

Joutel, 37 

Judicial decisions recognize children of 
slave mothers as slaves, 210 

Kansas, tribe, 31, 32, 74, 81, 86 

Kaskaskia, Indian slaves at, 70, 76, 78; 
church records of, 89 

Keith, Sir William, owned Indian slaves, 
116 

Kettles, objects of barter, 27 

Kidnapping, 154-167; contrary to law, 
165; legislation regarding, 166; Vir- 
ginia act regarding, 166; Maryland 
act regarding, 166; Massachusetts 
act regarding, 166; New Jersey act 
regarding, 167; New Hampshire act 
regarding, 167 

Kieft, Governor, requested by United 
Colonies to return runaway Indian 
slave, 233 

King Blount, chief, North Carolina 
orders to return runaway Indian 
slaves, 222; buys Indians, 302 

King Philip, wife and son transported, 
127 

King Philip's War, captives, enslaved, 
no, in, 125-131; ran away, 218; 
to receive religious instructions, 273 

Kishkakon, tribe, 80 

Klamath, tribe, 33 

Knives, objects of barter, 27 

Kussoe, tribe, war with, 119; captives 
sold as slaves, 119, 134 

La Harpe, journey in southwest, 30, 73; 
seized Indians, 73; given Indians, 81 

La Hontan, 35, 37 

La Jeune, 28, 36 

La Salle, expedition of, 34, 35; death 
of, 47; urges Illinois against Iroquois, 
70; reports Indian slaves held by 
French, 75, 77; advocates enslave- 
ment of Indians, 76; given Indians, 81 

Las Casas, opponent of Indian slavery, 

65. 304 

La Tore, Francis, kidnaps Indians, 162 

Laudonniere, given Indians, 79; intends 
using slaves as guides, 82 

Laughton, John, captures and sells In- 
dians abroad, 161; indicted for the 
act, 161 

La Verendrye, 32; sends Indian slaves 
to French settlements, 74 



INDEX 



[598 



Law, customary, recognizes Indian 

slavery, 212 
Leisler, Jacob, grievances against, 1 14 
Le Jau, missionary, 266, 
Le Page du Pratz, uses Indian slave as 

cook and interpreter, 83 
Le Sueur, given Indians, 81 
Levis, parish register of, 88 
Little Compton, hired Indians in, 293 
Little Sun, chief's son, sent to West 

Indies, 68 
Long, journal of, 98 
Longfellow, Stephen, owns Indian slave, 

274 
Long Point, parish register of, 88 
Louis de la Louisiane, Fort, 90 
Louis XIV, edict of, 63; orders captive 

Indians sent to France, 85 
Louisiana, 57, 59, 64, 67, 77, 82, 83; 

church records of, 88; census of, 91; 

report on, 91; negro slaves in, 101 

MacSparran, betters religious condition 
of slaves in Narragansett, 275 

Madeira, Indian slaves in, 163 

Maine, Indians from, carried to Massa- 
chusetts as slaves, 105; carried to the 
Azores, 125 

Maine, Thomas, on preying of tribe 
upon tribe for slaves, 171 

Makah, tribe, 43 

Mallet, expedition, uses slaves as guides, 
82 

Mandan, tribe, 43 

Manumission of Indian slaves, 57, 94, 
195, 276-282 

Mantantons, tribe, 81 

Marcy, Moses, owns Indian slave, 288 

Markham, Governor William, owns In- 
dian slave, 116 

Marquette, Father, 27; given an Indian 
slave, 80 

Marriages, of slaves, 42, 43, 252; of 
French and Indians, 87 

Martha's Vineyard, general court grants 
slaves right of appeal, 257 

Maryland, Indian slaves in, 117; in- 
dentured white servants in, 117; as- 
sembly authorizes enslavement of 
Indians, 132; act against kidnapping, 
166; decrees children shall follow 
condition of father, 208; decrees 
slavery as condition of slave parents' 
children, 209; recognizes Indian 
slaves as property, 217; permits own- 
ers to hire out slaves, 246; forbids 



599] 



INDEX 



347 



marriage of whites and slaves, 253; 
permits slaves to testify at trial of 
slaves, 255; remunerates owners of 
executed slaves, 259; encourages 
baptism of slaves, 271 

Mascoutens, tribe, 38 

Mason, John, commander in campaign 
against Narraganset, 138; authorized 
to enslave captives, 138; on runaway 
Indian slaves, 218; declares Pequot 
captives poor slaves, 288 

Massachusetts, Indian slaves in, 123, 
124, 126, 187; exports Pequot cap- 
tives, 124; exports other Indians, 
126; act against kidnapping, 166; 
act against importation of Indians, 
188; act against exportation of In- 
dians, 188; act to prevent abuse of 
apprenticeship, 198; sentences In- 
dians to slavery as punishment for 
crime, 202, 203, 205; remunerates 
owner for Indian slave taken from 
him, 225; courts settle disputed own- 
ership of slaves, 225; regards Indian 
slaves as taxables, 230-231; forbids 
marriage of whites and negroes or 
Indians, 252; provides for slave 
courts, 261, 262; regulates sale of 
spirituous liquor to Indians, 264; 
provides religious instruction (or cap- 
tives of King Philip's War, 273; re- 
munerates owner for slave taken from 
him, 279, 280; provides freedom as 
reward to slave, 280; regulates ac- 
tions of slaves, 290; legislation shows 
Indian slaves unsatisfactory, 291; 
requires license to hire Indians, 292 

Matthews, deputy, removed by proprie- 
tors, 174 

Mayhew, Experience, regrets lack of re- 
ligious instruction for slaves, 273; 
tells of Indian slave purchasing 
liberty, 277 

Mdewakanton, tribe, 81 

Medford, slaves in, 263 

Mendoza, viceroy, 31, 52, 53 

Menendez, 30, 48; brings negroes to 
Florida, 59 

Menominee, tribe, 32 

Mexico, 26, 34, 56 

Miami, tribe, 29 

Miantonomo, chief, agreement with 
Massachusetts, 221 

Michigan, Indian slavery in, 33 

Middleton, deputy, removed by proprie- 
tors of Carolina, 174 



Milton, Indian slaves in, 298 

Mining, occupation of Indian slaves, 37 

Ministry, of the colonies, 91 

Minquae, tribe, have white slaves, 47 

Miro, governor, frees slaves, 58 

Missions, 59, 60, 66 

Missionaries, as slave holders, 65, 66, 
67; advocate enslavement of Indians, 
76 

Missouri, tribe, 32, 33, 64 

Mississippi, river, 31, 36; valley, 92 

Mistick Fight, captives enslaved, 123 

Mistresses, Indian slaves used as by In- 
dians, 36; by Spaniards, 55; by 
French, 83 

Mobile, tribe, held as slaves by French, 
75; settlement, 73, 75; church records 
of, 88, 89 ; purposes of establishment 
of, 172 

Modoc, tribe, 33 

Mohawk, have white slaves, 47 

Mohegan, tribe, at war with Narragan- 
set, 138; hired by English, 294 

Monmouth, county, New Jersey, Indian 
slaves in, 117 

Montreal, capitulation of, 64, 93; slavery 
in, 92 

Montagnais, tribe, 80 

Moore, Governor, enslaves and exports 
Indians, 119, 120, 135; Colonel, ex- 
pedition of, to North Carolina, 122; 
deputy, removed by proprietors, 174; 
forces council to annul election of 
Moreton as governor, 179; on traffic 
in Indians, 179; employs Indian 
slaves in fields, 245 

Moreton, Governor Joseph, instructed 
by proprietors not to allow Indians to 
be carried from South Carolina, 1 75 

Morton, Thomas, hires Indians, 293 

Moscoso, leader after Soto's death, 56; 
treatment of slaves, 56 

Moseley, Captain, captured Indians, 125 

Mountgomry, Sir Robert, advocates use 
of indentured white servants, 289 

Mutilation, punishment, 246 

Nairn, Captain, expedition of to Florida, 

120 
Nanticoke, tribe, war of Maryland with, 

i3 2 . !33 
Narraganset, tribe, Pequot captives given 

to, 123; at war with the Mohegan, 

138; campaign against, 138 
Narragansett, slaves in, no, 275; hired 

servants in, 294 



348 



INDEX 



[600 



Nassoni, tribe, 30 

Natchez, tribe, friendly with French, 
67; enslaved by French, 67, 68; Eng- 
lish traders purchase slaves from, 173; 
enslave Shawnee, 173 

Natchitoch, tribe, 30 

Natchitoches, 30, 74; report concern- 
ing. 75 

Neau, pastor in New York, to S. P. G. 
F. P., 268 

Negroes, use of a cause for decline of 
Indian slavery, 297, 298 

Newbury, Indian slaves in. 298 

New England, Indian slaves in, 105, 
117, 187; free Indians in, 283; In- 
dian slaves die of consumption, 285; 
hired Indians in, 293 

New England Confederation, decrees 
slavery as punishment for Indians, 
206, 207; provides for enslavement 
of Narraganset captives, 207; orders 
Indians seized for harboring runaway 
slaves, 223 

New Hampshire, Indian slaves in, 1 1 1 ; 
act against importation of Indians, 
192-193; levies import duties on In- 
dians, 236; grants slaves the right to 
life, 255; finds Indian slaves unsatis- 
factory, 291 

New Haven, act against exportation of 
Indians, 189 

New Jersey, Indian slaves in, 116-117, 
180, 300 ; import duties on Indians, 
236; provides for trial of slaves, 257; 
remunerates owners of executed slaves, 
258; punishments for slaves, 261, 262; 
act concerning baptism of slaves, 27 1 ; 
regulates action of freedmen, 280; 
regulates manumission, 282; inden- 
tured Indians in, 295 

New London, Indian slaves in, 300 

New Mexico, missions, 60 

New Netherland, Indian slavery in, 1 12- 

"3 

New Orleans, 28, 74; census of, 91 ; re- 
port on, 92 
Newport, Indians surrender at, 129 
New York, Indian slaves in, 113-115, 
187; act to prevent importation of 
Indians, 193; abuse of apprentice- 
ship, 200; decrees slavery as condition 
of slave mothers' children, 200; re- 
gards Indian slaves as taxables, 232; 
levies import duties en Indians, 238- 
240; forbids slaves to testify at trial 
of whites, 255; provides for trial of 



slaves, 257; decrees that baptism does 
not free slaves, 272; regulates actions 
of freedmen, 280; regulates manumis- 
sion, 282; free Indians in, 284; regu- 
lates conduct of slaves, 290 ; inden- 
tured Indians in, 295; abolishes In- 
dian slavery, 317 

New York City, permits owners to hire 
out slaves, 246; employs Indian slaves 
in military operations, 247; restric- 
tions on slaves, 260 

Nez Perces, tribe, 33 

Niagara, articles of peace drawn up at, 

247 

North Carolina, Indian slaves in, 36, 
133, 301 ; runaway Indian slaves, 
222; recognizes Indian slaves as 
property, 225, 226; regards Indian 
slaves as taxables, 227; forbids mar- 
riage of whites and Indians, 253; 
forbids hlaves to testify in court, 254; 
punishments for Indian slaves, 261, 
263, 264; act regarding manumission 
of slaves, 278; act regulating con- 
duct of freedmen, 280, 281; small- 
pox destroys Indians, 285 

Northwest, 25, 27, 33, 36, 37, 39, 42, 
85; Indian slavery in, 45 

Northwest Territory, slavery in, 33 

Nova Scotia, 51 

Oakinacke, tribe, slavery among, 46 
Ohio, 29 

Okechobee, Lake, 120 
Oldmixon, on number of free Indians 
in New York, 284; in New Jersey, 

285 
Old Town Creek, settlement, Indian 

children enslaved, 197 
Opechancanough, chief, 119 
Opinion, public, concerning Indian 

slavery, 303 
Ordinance of 1787, 33 
Oregon Indians, slavery among, 33, 45 
O'Reilly, proclamation of concerning 

slaves, 58 
Ortiz, Juan, enslaved, 46 
Osage, tribe, 28, 31, 32, 73, 75 
Ottawa, tribe, 27, 28, 32, 35, 36, 37; 

area, 66, 70, 80 
Ottogami, tribe, 38 
Ouacha, tribe, 75 
Outaouac, tribe, 32 

Padouca, tribe, 31, 32, 86 
Palfrey, estimate of number of Indians, 
284 



6oi] 



INDEX 



349 



Pamunkey, 119 

Panis, synonym for Indian slave, 89, 

246 
Paraguay, 67 
Paris, 64, 66, 91 

Pariss, Reverend, hires Indians, 293 
Parliament, of Great Britain, 64; of 

South Carolina, partly in sympathy 

with proprietors, 176; of Canada, 

abolishes slavery, 97 
Parris, Alexander, receiver of South 

Carolina, 202 
Pawnee, tribe, 28, 31, 33, 73, 75, 99; 

synonym for Indian slave, 32, 64, 93, 

99 

Pavupki, enslavement of Indians of, 38 

Pekkemeck, Indians, conceal runaway 
slaves, 222 

Pemaquid, 160, 161 

Fenn William, founder of a " free col- 
ony," 115; letter to Susquehanna, 
224 

Pennsylvania, kidnapping in, 161 ; In- 
dian slaves imported from South 
Carolina, 180, 187, 194; acts against 
importation of Indians, 193-195; ac t 
concerning runaway slaves, 221 ; im- 
port duties on Indians, 236; punish- 
ments for slaves, 262 

Pensacola, English Indians attack, 171 

Pequot War, captives, enslaved, 109, 1 10, 
123, 124; ran away, 218; agreements 
to return runaways, 221-222; unfitted 
for slaves, 288 

Perier, governor of Louisiana, enslaves 
Natchez Indians, 68; protests against 
trade in Indians, 98 

Peter, Reverend Hugh, desires Indian 
slave, 310 

Philadelphia, yearly meeting, action on 
Indian slavery, 308, 

Pierce, Captain, carries Indian slaves to 
the Bermudas, 124 

Pima, tribe, 30 

Pirates, work of, 163, 205 

Plymouth, Indian slaves in, 109, 125; 
sends Indians to Spain, 125, 126; 
sentences Indians to slavery as pun- 
ishment for crime, 204: concerning 
runaway slaves, 224; frees Indian 
slaves, 277; provides remuneration 
for slave owners, 279; hired Indians 
in, 293; apprenticed Indians in, 295 

Pollock, Governor, negotiates sale of 
Indians, 133 



Popham, Lord, patron of Weymouth. 
T 55> given two Indians, 156 

Portsmouth, forbids holding Indian 
slaves in the town, 152; Indian 
slaves in, 299 

Portugal, rival power, 71 ; Indians car- 
ried to, 127 

Potawatami, tribe, 38 

Powder, object of barter, 27 

Powhatan, chief, 36; Indian freed by 
Virginia assembly, 186 

Praying Indians, enslaved, 128, 143, 
144; hired, 293 

Privateers, bring prizes to New Amster- 
dam, 163 

Proprietors, of Carolina, grant privilege 
of selling Indians in West Indies, 134, 
174: jealous of Governor West, 134; 
power broken, 135: forbid enslave- 
ment of Indians, 169; play double 
game with reference to Indians, 173; 
jealous of colonial officials, 174: op- 
pose Indian slavery, 175: forbid Gov- 
ernor Moreton to allow exportation of 
Indians, 175; oppose dealers in In- 
dians, 177; recognize usefulness of 
enslaving Indi.in captives, 178; de- 
nounce Governor Moore's Indian 
policy, 179; sanction Indian slavery, 
309: caution West against appointing 
certain deputies, 174 

Protection, to owners' property in In- 
dian slaves, 221 222 

Providence, island, Indians carried to, 
124; town, Indians surrender at, 129 

Pueblo, tribe, 31 : missions, 60 

Puritans, of Anne Arundel County, re- 
fuse to raise military lew, 133; mis- 
sionary scheme concerning Indians, 
294 

Quakers, at peace with Delaware, 115; 
control government of Rhode Island, 
129; affect Indian slavery, 305; op- 
pose Indian slavery, 307-308 

Quebec, 80; parish registei of, 88 

Queen Charlotte Island, slave mart, 45 

Quincy, slaves in, 109 

Rancherias, practically enslave Indians, 
61 

Ransom, 44 

Rappahannock, court, authorizes en- 
slavement ol Indians, 131 

Rauch, missionary in New York, 162 

Raudot, Jacques, intendant, authorizes 



350 



INDEX 



[602 



Indian slavery, 63: issues ordinance 
against slaves' running away, 99 
Reaping, occupation of Indian slaves, 37 
Renault, sent to Louisiana, 102 
Rhode Island, slaves in, no, 128-130, 
187, 236: limits bondage of Indians 
to term of years, 150: general as- 
sembly so orders, 151 ; sends Indians 
back to Plymouth, 151; Indian slaves 
brought to from South Carolina, 180; 
act against importing Indians, 191, 
192; act to prevent abuse of appren- j 
ticeship, 199; sentences Indians to j 
slavery as punishment, 205; levies 
import duties on Indians, 235; votes 
to enlist Indian slaves, 248: religious 
condition of slaves in, 274; legislation 
shows Indian slaves unsatisfactory, 
292; indentured Indians in, 295: j 
prices of Indian slaves in, 299; I 
abolishes Indian slavery, 316: legis- 
lation concerning Spanish Indians, 

319 
Ribaut, instructions from Queen of 

France, 72: seizes Indians, 72 
Rowlandson, Mrs., taken prisoner by ! 

Indians, 47 
Roxbury, Indian slaves in, 109 
Rye, declares Indian slaves taxables, 

232 

Saguenay, 72, 79 

St. Augustine, 30, 107: expedition 
against, 1 19, 120, 135: Indians cap- 
tured at, 285 

St. Denis, enslaved by Indians, 47 

St. George, manor, Indian slaves in, 114 

St. Lawrence, river, 36 

St. Miguel. 53 

St. Peters, Indian slaves in, 271 

St. Thomas, parish, 107 

Salem, indentured servants in, 295: In- 
dians slaves in, 298, 299 

Salishan, tribe, 33 

San Diego, 60 

San Domingo, 102 

Sandiford, Kalph, opposed to Indian 
slavery, 306 

Sandwich, Indians in, 147; court sen- 
tences Indians to slavery, 203 

Sarrow, tribe, sells Indians in Virginia, 
186 

Sassacus, chief, 123 

Sauk, tribe, 32 

Savannah, tribe, prey on other tribes, 
sell captives, 170: break treaty, 170: 
reduced in numbers, 287 



Savoile, owns Indian slaves, 77 
Sayle, governor of Carolina, 169 
Schuyler, Arient, owns Indian slaves, 

114, 2r 7 
Schuylkill, river, 29 
Seabrook, Fort, Indian captives to be 

sent to, 138 
Seneca, tribe, 29; carry Indian slave 

boy from South Carolina, 224 
Serpent, Nation of the, 75 
Sewall, Samuel, intercedes to prevent 

enslavement of Indians, 204; admires 

marriage of whites and Indians, 253; 

on sale of Indians, 298; opposed to 

Indian slavery, 305 
Sharp, Granville, opposed to Indian 

slavery, 306 
Sharpe, pastor in New York, to S. P. G. 

T. P., 268 
Shawnee, tribe, 29; enslaved, 173 
Shekomeka, Indian town in New York, 

162 
Short, Elizabeth, purchases Indian, 2';0 
Shrimpton, Mr., quarters Indians on 

Noddle's Island, 143 
Shurt, Abraham, prevents union of 

Massachusetts and Maine Indians, 

160 
Smallcomb, Thomas, owns Indian slaves, 

119; sells Indians, 301 
Smith, Captain John, 36; expedition to 

New England, 158, William, owns 

Indian slaves, 114 
Snake, tribe, 32 

Society for the Propagation of the Gos- 
pel in Foreign Parts, purpose of 

American missionaries, 265; allows 

missionaries to work among slaves, 

266; response to missionaries, 268; 

drafts bill to aid conversion of slaves, 

268 
Sonnagars, tribe, 29 
Sonnontuan, tribe, 70 
Soto, 31, 37, 49; lands in Florida, 51; 

captures Indians, 52; a slave owner, 

52; uses Indian slaves as guides, 55; 

death, 56 
Southampton, hired Indians in, 204 
Sowing, employment of Indian slaves, 

37 
South Carolina, report on, 107; Indian 
slaves in, 109, 134-136; sentences 
Indians to slavery, 201 ; decrees con- 
dition of slavery for children of slave 
mothers, 207; recognizes Indian 
slaves as property, 213; Indian slaves 



603] 



INDEX 



351 



disposed of by will, 217; act con- 
cerning runaway slaves, 221 ; esteems 
slaves as real property, 226; as tax- 
ables, 232; levies import duties on 
Indians, 234; levies export duties on 
Indians, 240; permits owners to hire 
out slaves, 246; employs slaves in 
military operations, 247, 248; re- 
wards Tuscarora for military service 
by gilts of Indian slaves, 249; per- 
mits slaves to testify, 254 ; remunerates 
owners of executed slaves, 258; averse 
to slaves being church members, 269: 
directions to traders, 276; allows 
Indian slaves t> prove right to free- 
dom, 277: act regulating freedmen, 
280; small pox destroys Indians, 285 ; 
declares Indian slaves of less value 
than negroes, 302; abolishes Indian 
slavery, 315 
South Kingston, slaves in, no 
Southold, Indian apprentices in, 295 
Spain, Indians carried to, 51, 125, 126, 

158; rival power, 71 
Spanish Indians, in New York, 163; in 
New England, 164; in Pennsylvania, 
164: undesirable, 290 
Spanish Main, 48 

Spanish Succession, war of, 119, 172 
Spiritual welfare of Indians, 59 
Spotswood, Governor, to Lord Dart- 
mouth, 198 
Sprague, Captain, carries Indian slaves 

to Spain, 125 
Stanton, Captain John, owns Indian 

slaves, 130 
Status, slavery, servitude, 212-216 
Statutory recognition of slavery, 212 
Steevens, missionary of S. P. G. F. P., 

183 

Stono, tribe, war with, 106, 119; cap- 
tives enslaved, 119, 134 

Stoughton, Captain, requests Indian 
slave, 210 

Susquehanna, tribe, carry away Indian 
slaves from New York, 224; war with 
Yoamaco, 286 

Swamp Eight, captives enslaved, 123 

SwanZ'jy, Indian slave in, 145 

Taensa, tribe, Chickasaw obtain slaves 

from, 173 
Taiguragui, chief, 71 
Talapoosa, tribe, preys on tribes for 

captives to sell, 171 
Talbot, attorney-general of England, 



decides that baptism does not free 
slaves, 275 
Talc t, Major John, treasurer of Con- 
necticut, 1 30 
Tampa Bay, 51 
Tartary, 27 

Terre Haute, slavery in, 92 
Terrisse, 81 
Thacher, Reverend Peter, owns Indian 

slaves, 251, 298 
Thomas, Samuel, to S. P. G. F. P., 266 
Thompson, Indians, slavery among, 46 
Tiguex, captured by Coronado, 53, 56 
Timucua, tribe, enslaved by English, 121 
Tisquantum, captured by Captain Hunt, 

158 

Ilingit, tribe, 33 

Tonti, 28, 38; urges Illinois against 
Iroquois, 69; advocates enslavement 
of Indians, 76; given Indians, 81 

Toungletat, Indian slavery among, 45 

Trade, leading employment of French- 
American colonists, 87; means of ob- 
taining Indian slaves, 168-195 

Treasurer, of colony, authorized to sell 
Indians, 139, I40, 148 

Treatment, of Indian slaves, 39-42, 55- 
57, 86-92, 250 282; not different 
from treatment of negroes, 250 

Tusayan, tribe, enslave Indians of 
Payupki, 38 

Tuscarora, war, captives enslaved, 121, 
122, 133: cause of, 197; Indians, 
runaway, 222 

Uncas, chief, exchanges land for Indian 
slave, 277 

United Colonies of New England, 
authorize enslavement of Indians, 
138; recognize property rights in In- 
dian slaves, 222; letter to Governor 
Kieft, 223 

Ute, tribe, slavery among, 45, 46 

Vancouver Island, Indian slavery on, 45 

Verrazano, kidnaps Indians, 71 

Vesey, Reverend, on Indian slaves in 

New York, 1 14 
Vincennes, church records of, 89; 

slavery at, 92 
Virginia, Indian slaves in, 30, 108, 118, 
119, 127, 180, 1S7, 271, 301; assem- 
bly authorizes transportation and sale 
of Indians, 131-132; act against kid- 
napping Indians, 166; early trade 
with Indians, 185; policy regarding 



352 



INDEX 



[604 



enslavement of Indians, 185; act 
against enslavement of Indian chil- 
dren, 19S; sentences Indians to 
slavery, 202-203; act concerning run- 
away slaves, 221; regards Indian 
slaves as taxables, 227-230; levies 
import duties on, 235, 237; forbids 
marriage of free whites and Indian 
slaves, 252; decrees child of an In- 
dian to be a mulatto, 254; forbids 
slaves to testify in court except at 
trial of slaves, 255; provides special 
courts for trial of slaves, 256; votes 
to educate Indian servants, 270; leg- 
ally designates slaves in 1670, 270; 
repeals act of 1670, 272; requires 
registration of slaves, 271; act con- 
cerning manumission of slaves, 278, 
279; regulates actions of freedmen, 
280; decrease in number of Indians, 
286; requires license to hire Indians, 
292; indentured Indians in, 295; 
abolishes Indian slavery, 312; su- 
preme court decision regarding abo- 
lition of Indian slavery, 313 
Voyageurs, 64 

Waineoke, King of, sells Indian to 
Elizabeth Short, 270, 301 

Wal<ashan, tribe, 33 

Waldron, Major, seizes Indians at 
Cocheco, 147; issues warrants for 
seizure of Indians, 161; indicted for 
stealing and selling Indians, 161 

Wallawalla, river, 33 

Wampum, 35, 37 

Waniah, tribe, at war with South Caro- 
lina, 177 

Washington, General George, proposes 
to enlist slaves, 248 

West, Governor, sells Indians as slaves, 
119, 134; removed from office by 



proprietors, 174; cautioned by pro- 
prietors against appointing certain 
deputies, 174 

West Indies, 78; Indians carried to, 
68, 97, 119, 124, 127, 133-134, 169, 
180, 185, 202, 302 

West Virginia, slave courts in, 256 

Western Company, charter of, 101; im- 
ports negroes into Louisiana, 10 1 

Westo, tribe, sell captives to English, 
170; break treaty, 170; sell Indians 
to Carolina planters, 175: reduced in 
numbers, 287 

Wethersfield, Indian slave in, 300 
1 Wetmore, on opposition of owners to 

baptism of slaves, 273 
I Weymouth, kidnnps Indians, 155 
! Whipping, punishment, 262-263 

Willard, Lieutenant, agreement of 
Massachusetts with, 222 

Williams, Roger, on Indian slavery, 
304; requests an Indian slave, 310 

Winthrop, John, owns an Indian slave, 
216; on number of free Indians, 248; 
obtains licenses to employ Indians, 
292 

Wisconsin, 27, 32, 38, 94 

Yamasee, tribe, 30 
Yanan, t ibe, 33 
Yaqui, tribe, enslaved, 54 
Yazoo, tribe, enslave Shawnee, 173 
Yeamans, Sir John, chosen by proprie- 
tors to succeed West as Governor, 

174 
j Yoamaco, tribe, war with Susquehanna, 

286 

Yorke, solicitor-general of England, de- 
cides that baptism does not free slaves 
275 

Yuma, tribe, 30 



VITA 

The author of this dissertation, Almon Wheeler Lauber, 
was born at Lawrenceville, St. Lawrence Co., New York, 
March 24, 1880. He was graduated from the New York 
State Normal School, Potsdam, New York, in 1900. Dur- 
ing the academic year of 1900-1901 he was principal of the 
graded school at Lawrenceville, New York. In 1905, he 
was graduated from Syracuse University with the degree 
of Ph. B., and in the same year received the Ph. M. de- 
gree. During the three succeeding academic years he was 
instructor in history at George School, Bucks Co., Penn- 
sylvania. In 1908, he entered Columbia University where 
he pursued graduate work. His major subject was Amer- 
ican History, and his minors were Constitutional Law and 
European History. He took courses in American History 
under Professors Shepherd, Osgood and Dunning; in Con- 
stitutional Law under Professor Burgess; and in European 
History under Professors Osgood, Robinson and Sloane. 
He was a member of seminars under Professors Shepherd, 
Osgood and Dunning. 

341 



INDIAN SLAVERY IN COLONIAL TIMES WITHIN 
THE PRESENT LIMITS OF THE UNITED STATES 



EY 

ALMON WHEELER LAUBER, Pb.M. 



SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN THE 

Faculty of Political Science 
Columbia University 



NEW YORK 

1913 



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